Elizabethan England Part 18

[89] "Corn-trees" are probably _cornels_, from one of which, the _C. ras_, L., the berries are commonly eaten in Italy, and sherbet made from them in the East. In Italy they are called _cornia_ and _corniola_.--R. C. A.

PRIOR.

[90] Of these four examples, in four s.h.i.+res, surrounding London, west, south, north, and east, not one remains as Harrison had it in view. The famous grounds of Hampton Court are of William III., Wolsey work being effaced. Nonsuch in Surrey, near Epsom race-course, is a mere memory. In Harrison's time it was a favourite resort of Elizabeth, being designed by her father as the child of his old age, but really built as a "labour of love" by the last of the Fitzalans, who saved it from destruction by Mary (who loved not her father's works), making it the scene of many an act in the tragic drama of the royal sisters and their cousin of Scotland.

Theobald's, in Herts, known to all readers of Izaac Walton, was just before Harrison's day the seat of the family of Burbage, the "original Hamlet," being bought in 1564 by Cecil, made the favourite haunt of the Stuarts, and finally was destroyed by the Commonwealth people. Cobham, near Gravesend in Kent, was the seat of the Brookes, the ill-starred patrons of Harrison himself. It is still famous in horticultural annals, just as Nonsuch will be immortal from its luscious apples.--W.

[91] Harrison may be said to have made this word his own, and a cla.s.sic in the language. Its meaning is sufficiently indicated in the text, but the published definition and etymologies are evidently incomplete. A _bodger_ was probably a (tax) collector in his bodge or budget, before he was a buyer and seller.--W.

[92] What a pity the poor men couldn't _co-operate_, imitate the rich buyer, and have their own bodger to buy for them!--F.

[93] Victorian writers can say this too. I recollect fresh b.u.t.ter at 8d.

and 10d. a pound here at Egham, and now we pay 20d. The imported Italian b.u.t.ter that we get in London, from Ralli, Greek Street, Soho, is 19d.--F.

[94] An interesting antic.i.p.ation of John Stuart Mill's point of the evil of a large middleman cla.s.s checked only by compet.i.tion. Co-operation, with a few middlemen, the agents and servants of the co-operators, is what we want.--F.

[95] Elizabethan England was the transition period when the slavery of money rents was fastened upon an unsuspecting people, leading to the great famines and revolts of the Stuart period.--W.

[96] The ancient London counterpart of the more modern "Rag Fair" known to literary fame.--W.

[97] The Kermess, or literally, "Church ma.s.s," so famous in "Faust."--W.

[98] Here follows a long treatise on the "Law of Ordeal." Habam was at the mouth of the Trent, where the Romans crossed the Humber; Wannetting is Wantage; Thundersley survives still in Ess.e.x; Excester is Exeter; Crecklade (misprinted Grecklade) is Cricklade. All are of historic foundation.--W.

[99] A good deal of this chapter and the following one is mere compilation; but there are interesting bits of Harrison's own self in his "_old c.o.c.k of Canterbury_," the _prophecies_ or _conferences_ then lately begun, and soon blessed, the _taxes on parsons_, the Church being the "_a.s.s for every market man to ride on_," the then state of the churches, and abolition of feast and _guild-days_, the popish priest "_dressed like a dancing peac.o.c.k_," the contempt felt for the ministry and their poverty.--F. [Some of the merely historical recapitulation has been banished altogether, along with the next chapter referred to, that upon "Bishoprics."--W.]

[100] The Welsh name for England, as distinct from their own Cambria, usually written "Lloegr," and poetically derived from the eldest of the three sons of Brute, Locrine of Loegria, Camber of Cambria, and Alban of Albania (Albany, Alban, or Scotland), the adventures of this trio furnis.h.i.+ng all the island with names, as King Humber of the Huns defeated and drowned in the Humber, his beautiful protegee Estreldis and her daughter Sabra (by Locrine) thrown into the Severn (from Sabrina) by the jealous and discarded Queen Gwendolen after she had settled accounts with Locrine himself by the banks of the Sture. See Spenser, Milton, the old play of "Locrine," and the new one by Swinburne: "How Britain at the first grew to be divided into three portions."--W.

[101] In his first book and in this chapter.--W.

[102] This "authority" was for ever chopped off in the next generation with the head of William Laud.--W.

[103] "There can be no reasonable doubt that there existed an episcopal see at Caerleon in early times. It is pretty certain that it disappeared about the sixth century, and that the bishoprics of St. David's, Llandaff, and Llanbadarn were founded about the same time. Nor have we, with a single doubtful exception, any indication of sees in any part of South Wales, with the sole exception of Caerleon. We may therefore regard the change to a certain extent as a portion of the spiritual jurisdiction between the three chief princ.i.p.alities into which South Wales seems at this time to have been divided, and partly as an imitation of the policy of St. Martin, by transferring it from the city to the wilderness. Or, if we please, we may regard St. David's and Llanbadarn as new sees, Llandaff being the legitimate representative of Caerleon. The question remains whether a metropolitan jurisdiction resided with any of these sees, and with which of them. It was claimed in after times by the bishops of Llandaff, as well as by those of St. David's," etc. (_History and Antiquity of St. David's_, by W. B. Jones and E. A. Freeman.)--W.

[104] This is a minor error, Canterbury having a.s.sumed the functions of St. David's archiepiscopate over a century before Archbishop Lanfranc of the Conquest came to a.s.sert the primacy over York, which was doubtless in Harrison's mind here.--W.

[105] Harrison had doubtless a special antipathy to Saint Dunstan, because that great autocrat of Canterbury, along with his busy labours of humbling kings, enforcing celibacy on the priesthood, building the "church triumphant" over the whole body politic, found time to usurp the archiepiscopal functions of Saint David's in the year 983, thus bringing Welshmen for the first time under English ecclesiastical rule, where (much to their disgust) they remain to our own time.--W.

[106] The details of the well-known story of Earl G.o.dwin, as rendered by Harrison, here follow. The great interest of these recapitulations of English clerical history is in the utterance of a mind fresh from the great wrench of the Reformation.--W.

[107] The last clause was significantly deleted in the edition of 1587.

The Armada was looming in the horizon, and the poor printer was obliged to mind his Protestant p's and q's for the nonce.--W.

[108] "As appeareth by these letters." Giving letter of Pope Eugenius to King Stephen.--W.

[109] "Calf," meaning a fool (as witness Cotgrave's definition of "_Veau_, a calfe or veale; also a lozell, hoydon, dunce, jobbernoll, doddipole"), had divers owners put before it, of whom Waltham seems to have been the best known: "Waltham's calf. As wise as Waltham's calf--_i.e._, very foolish. Waltham's calf ran nine miles to suck a bull." (Hallwell's Glossary.)--F.

[110] "As appeareth by the same letter here ensuing." Companion letter to Maud of Boulogne.--W.

[111] Ostia, referring to Leo Marsica.n.u.s, cardinal-archbishop of Ostia.--W.

[112] The letter of Marsica.n.u.s is given in full.--W.

[113] Thomas Fitzalan, son of the Earl of Arundel, and great-grandson of Edmund Crouchback, and third cousin of the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, fathers of the king and his rival Bolingbroke, but closely allied to the latter, being cousin-german of John of Gaunt's first wife, Bolingbroke's mother. The printers misprinted his name as "John." He has been handed down as the great persecutor of the Lollards, whom John of Gaunt patronised.--W.

[114]

"Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back While gold and silver beck me to come on,"

blurts out the b.a.s.t.a.r.d in _King John_. Shakespeare was not above taking a hint from Harrison.--W.

[115] William the Lion, who at Coeur de Lion's death came into England to do feudal homage for his English lands to the wily John Lackland, a visit which John, after his fas.h.i.+on, turned to account by imposing on William the impossible task of following him across the Channel and making war upon Philip Augustus, and, on King William's refusal to drag Scotland into a quarrel which was not even _English_, John declared the English lands of William forfeited, and started a feud which had momentous issue in after years.--W.

[116] Harrison has here shown less than his usual broad-mindedness. All agree in praising John de Stratford as being gentle enough to match his ill.u.s.trious townsman yet to be, Avon apparently breeding nothing but "sweet swans." The archbishop's quarrel with Edward about his friends.h.i.+p for the Spencers has always been his glory, not his disgrace.--W.

[117] The "vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins" was not the only outbreak of that soul-stirring century, Harrison here alluding to the great birth of the Puritans, who (contrary to usual belief, and as their historian particularly insisted upon) were a party in the Church of England--its whole life, in fact--for one generation, and not by any means _non-conformists_ or _dissenters_.--W.

[118] Writing on March 25, 1574, to one Matchet, his chaplain, parson of Thurgarton, in the diocese of Norwich, Archbishop Parker requested him to repair to his ordinary, and to show him how the Queen willd the Archbishop to suppress those _vain prophesyings_, and requird the ordinary, in her Majesty's name, to stop them. This not being acceptable to the Bishop of Norwich, an altercation between the Archbishop and the Bishop ensu'd. But eventually the prophesyings were stopt,--the following order being sent by the Bishop of Norwich to his Chancellor on the 7th of June, 1574:--"After my hearty commendations: whereas by the receipt of my Lord of Canterbury's letter, I am commanded by him, in the Queen her Majesty's name, that the prophesyings throughout my diocese should be suppressed; these are therefore to will you, that, as conveniently as you may, you give notice to every of my Commissaries, that they, in their several circuits, may suppress the same. And so I leave you to G.o.d."--Strype's _Life of Abp.

Parker_, vol. ii. p. 362. See more about them in these references to Strype's Works, from the Index:--"_Prophesyings_, certain exercises expounding the Scriptures, so called, P. II. 358, A. II. i. 133; orders respecting their use in the church of Northampton, 136, G. 260; this exercise set up at Bury, A. II. i. 325; Bishop Parkhurst's letter of permission, ii. 494; generally used by the clergy, i. 472; Bishop Cooper's regulations and allowance for them in Herefords.h.i.+re, _ib._ 476; Bishop Parkhurst stops them in the diocese of Norwich, 477-480, P. II. 358-362; some privy counsellors write to him in their favour, _ib._; he communicates with Archbishop Parker and some bishops upon the matter, _ib._; they are suppressed, _ib._; the contentions of the ministers, the occasion thereof, _ib._; directions for this exercise in the diocese of Chester, A. II. i. 481, ii. 544; III. i. 476; the permission of Bishop Chaderton, II. ii. 546; III. i. 477; Bishop c.o.x's opinion of them, II. ii.

13; the Queen's letter to the Bishop of Lincoln to stop them in his diocese, 114, 612; abuses of these exercises, G. 326; Archbishop Grindal's orders for their reformation, 327; the Queen orders the Archbishop to put a stop to them, 328; his expostulations with her on the subject, 329, 558; the Queen's letter for their suppression, 574, W. I. 163."--_Index to Strype's Works_, vol. ii. p. 208 (1828 edit.). There are frequent allusions to the _Prophesyings_ "in the Bishops' Injunctions and Questions, the whole of which are printed in the Appendix to the _2nd Report of the Ritual Commission_. See page 432, par. 25; p. 435, par. 20; p. 445, par. 26; p. 447, par. 18."--F.

[119] John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, writing to his friend Henry Bullinger, on April 28, 1562, says:--"And that you might not think I had forgotten you (since I was unable to write through illness), I sent you a small present. _Whenever I shall have paid my first fruits_, and extricated myself from debt, you shall know who and what kind of a man is your friend Parkhurst."--Parker Society's _Zurich Letters_, i. 107.--F.

[120] The Act of Henry VIII. for restraining pluralities contains a clause making employment at court an excuse for non-residence and pluralities; see Tyndale's _Expositions_, _etc._, 256, 336. Bradford contends that they are hurtful to the Church, _Writings_, ii. 395; so does Jewel, ii. 984; Whitgift defends them, i. 528, etc. See also Bullinger's _Decades_, iv.

144; Hutchinson's _Works_, 5; Latimer's _Works_, i. 122; Whitgift's _Works_, i. 506, etc., Parker Society (Index).--F.

[121] See W. Stafford's argument against pluralities in his _Compendious Examination_, 1581, fol. 53. "What reason is it that one man should haue two mens liuinges and two me_n_s charge, when he is able to discharge but one? The_n_, to haue more, and discharge the cure of neuer a one, is to farre agaynst reaso_n_. But some percase will say, 'there be some of vs worthy a greater preferme_n_t then others, and one benefice were to litle for such a one.' Is there not as many degrees in the variety of benefices as there is in mens qualities? Yes, forsooth, there is yet in this realme (tha_n_ked be G.o.d) benefices from M. markes to XX. markes a yeare of sundry value to endow euery man with, after his qualities and degree. And if a meane benefice happen to fal, let euery man be co_n_tented therewith til a better fal," etc., etc.--F.

[122] "It would pytye a mans heart to heare that that I heare of the state of Cambridge: what it is in Oxforde I can not tell. Ther be few do study diuinitie, but so many as of necessiti must furnish _the_ Colledges. For their lyuynges be so small, and vytaylee so dere, that they tarry not ther, but go other where to seke lyuynges, and so they go aboute. Nowe there be a fewe gentylmen, and they studye a little diuinitie.... There be none nowe but greate mens sonnes in Colledges, and theyr fathers loke not to haue them preachers, so euerye waye thys offyce of preachynge is pyncht at."--_Latimer's 5th Sermon before Edward IV._, A.D. 1549, p. 140, ed.

Arber. The scarcity of preachers in the time of Queen Elizabeth is lamented by Jewel in his _Works_, ii. 999, 1000, and by Archbp. Sandys, _Works_, p. 154 (Parker Soc.). He also complains of the ignorance of ministers in Elizabeth's time, _Works_, ii. 1012 (Parker Soc).--F.

[123] Here follows a story about the bootless errand of a pope's legate in 1452.--W.

[124] "But what do you patrons? Sell your benefices, or give them to your servants for their service, for keeping of hounds or hawks, for making of your gardens. These patrons regard no souls, neither their own nor other men's. What care they for souls, so they have money, though they [souls]

perish, though they go to the devil?" (Latimer's Sermon at Stamford, 9th Nov. 1550, _Works_, i. 290).--On the general character of the ministers of England, see the Parker Society's _Zurich Letters_, ii. 63. Harding calls them tinkers, tapsters, fiddlers and pipers, Jewel's _Works_, iv. 873, 209; Jewel admits their want of learning, _ib._ 910; many of them were made of "the basest sort of the people," Whitgift's _Works_, i. 316; artificers and unlearned men were admitted to the ministry, Archbp.

Parker's _Correspondence_, p. 120; many had come out of the shop into the clergy, Fulke's _Works_, ii. 118; an order was given to ordain no more artificers, Archbp. Grindal's _Remains_, p. 241, note; some beneficed ministers were neither priests nor deacons, Archbp. Parker's _Corr._, pp.

128, 154, 308; laymen were presented to benefices, and made prebendaries, _ib._ 371, 312; and an Archdeacon was not in orders, _ib._ 142, note.--_Parker Society's Index_, p. 537--F.

[125] "I will not speak now of them that, being not content with their lands and rents, do catch into their hands spiritual livings, as parsonages and such like; and that under the pretence to make provision for their houses. What hurt and damage this realm of England doth sustain by that devilish kind of provision for gentlemen's houses, knights' and lords' houses, they can tell best that do travel in the countries, and see with their eyes great parishes and market towns, with innumerable others, to be utterly dest.i.tute of G.o.d's word; and that, because that these greedy men have spoiled the livings, and gotten them into their hands; and instead of a faithful and painful preacher, they hire a Sir John, which hath better skill in playing at tables, or in keeping of a garden, than in G.o.d's word; and he for a trifle doth serve the cure, and so help to bring the people of G.o.d in danger of their souls. And all those serve to accomplish the abominable pride of such gentlemen, which consume the goods of the poor (the which ought to have been bestowed upon a learned minister) in costly apparel, belly-cheer, or in building of gorgeous houses." 1562. A. Bernher's Dedication to Latimer's Sermons on the Lord's Prayer of A.D. 1552. _Latimer's Works_, i. 317 (Parker Soc.).--F.

[126] On the neglect of their duties by the Elizabethan clergy, and s.h.i.+fting the consequences of it on to the laity, see the Doctor's speech, on leaves 51-53 of Wm. Stafford's _Compendious Examination_, 1581 A.D.--F.

[127] See Chaucer, description of his Monk, Prologue to _Canterbury Tales_, lines 165-207, and my _Ballads from Ma.n.u.scripts_, vol. i. pp. 193, 194.--F.

[128] See _Ballads from Ma.n.u.scripts_, vol. i. pp. 59-78.--F.

[129] Long side-note here in edition of 1577, as follows:--"The very cause why weauers pedlers & glouers haue been made Ministers, for _th_e learned refuse such matches, so that yf the Bishops in times past hadde not made such by oversight friends.h.i.+p I wote not howe such men should haue done wyth their aduousons, as for a glouer or a tayler will be glad of an augme_n_tatio_n_ of 8 or 10 pou_n_d by the yere, and well contented that his patrone shall haue all the rest, so he may be sure of this pension."--F.

[130] Such a cla.s.sical expert as Harrison makes a curious error here.

Caesar, in his _Commentaries_, tells of the way in which the Britons instantly apprehended his weakness, perceiving during the truce his army's lack of corn, and thereupon plotting to secretly break the truce and annihilate the Mightiest Julius and his little following (teaching all future invaders a lasting lesson to beware the chalk cliffs of Albion).

Caesar also notes how he himself quietly neutralised these efforts by gathering in corn from the country thereabouts. The Britons, just as much as himself, understood corn as the staff of life, the mainstay of war as well as of peace. The fact is that Harrison thought with two brains, his Welsh one and his Latin one, and, lost in the mists of Welsh fictions, sometimes forgot the most incontrovertible of Latin authorities. Man's written records of things British start with Caesar.--W.