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IVORY STATUE OF ENGLISH WORK, DATE ABOUT 1280.

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PI ETAS
"
MARIANA
BRITANNICA.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH DEVOTION TO THE MOST BLESSED
VIRGIN MARYE MOTHER OF GOD,

CATALOGUE OF SHRINES, SANCTUARIES, OFFERINGS,

BEQUESTS, AND OTHER MEMORIALS OF THE PIETY
OF OUR FOREFATHERS.

EDMUND WATERTON, F S.A.

A /ng/// of the Order of Christ, of Rome.

EX LtBRiS
ST. BASIL S SWOLASTICATE
31

LONDON:
ST. JOSEPH S CATHOLIC LIBRARY,
48, SOUTH STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE.

1879.
[All rights reserved^

EX LIBRIS
ST, BASIL S SCHOLASTieATI
-2 195?
 INSCRIBED

MOST AFFECTIONATELY TO

FATHER FRANCIS CLOUGH, FORMERLY RECTOR,

FATHER EDWARD IGNATIUS PURBRICK, RECTOR.

AND

THE COMMUNITY OF

STONYHURST COLLEGE,

BY THEIR GRATEFUL AND DEVOTED FRIEND

AND BEDESMAN.
 PREFACE

IN mychildhood the idea of popular devotion to our

Blessed Ladye was brought vividly before my mind in
a tour through Germany and Flanders, and a residence
of nearly two years in Rome. The Fathers at the Gesu,
to whom I often said, "We have none of these nice
customs in England," told me that those very observ

ances, which so pleased me in Rome, had been

practised
in England inCatholic times, and that the day would
dawn when England would again love and venerate, as
in bygone times, the Blessed Mother of God.
My education at Stonyhurst was well suited to

strengthen these early impressions. In 1846 I chanced to

read Mr. Kenelm Digby s noble work, the Ages of Faith.
It seemed those glorious pages gave me an insight
as if

into the practices of Catholic devotion, and had power

to impart something of the spirit which animated our

forefathers. I resolved to do my little best to increase
devotion to our Blessed Ladye in England.
In 1852 I formed the definite idea of writing a
book on popular devotion to our Ladye and the plan ;

which I then sketched out, and which is now before

me, has been followed very faithfully in the First Book

of the present work. In the original design it had
been intended that England should receive special but
viii Preface.

not exclusive attention ;

and for many years I continued
to collect materials to illustrate the popular devotion
of all Christian nations. It was only in 1870, at the

suggestion of the learned Bollandist, Father Victor

de Buck, whose loss we so deplore, that I much
determined to set apart for a separate volume my
notes on England and English Sanctuaries and from ;

him I
accepted the title as it now stands. The Catalogue
of Shrines, which forms the Second Book is reprinted
from the Month and Catholic Review, the managers of
which have also taken on themselves the separate

printing of the First Book and the publication of the

whole work. Every word in this work has been tran
scribed at least twice by my own hand. I have made
no quotations at second hand perhaps with half a
dozen exceptions of books with which I could not
meet ;
have taken on the authority of
and these I

Mgr. Malou, and my old friend Canon Rock, whose

names are sufficient attestation of accuracy. I have felt
it due to myself to say this much, lest it might be

inferred that I had largely availed myself of the labours

of my friend, Father Bridgett. The only use, which I
have allowed myself to make of his interesting work,
has been to take occasion from reading it to curtail
or omit much of what I found that he had given.
I hope that those who may see the Pietas
sincerely
Mariana Britannica, and have not yet read Father
Bridgett s book, will not fail to do so.

have now the pleasing duty of acknowledging

I

various acts of kindness which I have received in the

course of many years.
I
beg to offer to the Fathers of the London Oratory
my hearty thanks for free access to their rich and
 Preface. ix

valuable library a favour which I appreciate the more

;

as I was a stranger to all save one of them. I also

gratefullyacknowledge a similar privilege accorded to

me by an old friend, now no more, Father Perrone, S.J.,
in regard of the Library of the Collegia Romano, and

by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus and the Redemp-

torist Fathers, at Boulogne-sur-mer. I have received
much courtesy from the accomplished librarian of the
Bibliotheque de la Ville, at Boulogne-sur-mer, Monsieur
Cougnacq, to whom my warm thanks are offered.
I am
under deep obligations, which I gladly record,
to my friend Edward A. Bond, Esq., the Principal
Librarian of the British Museum. I have often had
to consult him ;
and on one occasion he had the
kindness to collate some proofs himself, which I had
enclosed to him for collation by a reader. To
Monsignor Consitt, Provost of Hexham and New
castle, I am
indebted for the impression of the figure
of our Ladye taken from the coffin of St. Cuthberht.

My very cordial thanks are also offered to the dear

and most valued friend of my boyhood and of after

years, Father Francis Clough, S.J., formerly Rector of

Stonyhurst, for allowing me free access at all times to

the College Library, whensoever I paid a visit to our
dear old Alma Mater a privilege which has also been
;

continued to me manner by the present

in the kindest

Rector, Father Purbrick, who

has proved his friendship
in many ways, and to whom I am indebted for the

loan of several precious books, which have been of very

great assistance to me. I

beg him to accept the ex
pression of my heartiest thanks. I am also much
indebted to Father Kingdon, S.J., Prefect of Studies
at Stonyhurst.
x Preface.

My deepest gratitude is due to the Bollandist

Fathers, who not only most kindly gave me the ex
ceptional privilege of access at all times to their
magnificent library, but, in their generosity, mag
nified a trivial act of service which it had been in

my power to render them, and presented me with

a key of the Library, and of the case which contains
the most precious of their MSS. I can never cease

to be grateful for that act of courtesy. If ever I

forget the Bollandist Fathers, oblivioni detur dextera

mea. During a period of over four years, there was
seldom a day, except during some brief absence from
Brussels, of which I did not spend some portion in
their Library and enjoy the privilege of their conversa
tion. Yet those sunny memories are not unclouded
with some selfish sorrow. Two of the
good Fathers,
whose friendship I so highly valued and from whom
I received unbounded kindness Father Victor cle
Buck, and the accomplished scholar who knew thirty
languages, Father Henry Matagne have gone to their
reward, and are now enjoying the Beatific Vision
with those Saints, whose glories they so
strenuously
celebrated on earth. I cannot omit to record my
obligations to the obliging and good old Bollandist
Lay-brother, Brother Nicolai.
My hearty thanks are also due to another old
friend, Father Aloys De Backer, the learned biblio-

graphist,and librarian of the College of the Society

of Jesus at Lou vain, through whose kindness I was
enabled to consult several rare books which were not
in the Bollandist Library.
Ihave to express my cordial acknowledgments to
Messrs. Macmillan and Co., for electrotypes of the Eton
 Preface. xi

sealand foundation deed, furnished in the most obliging

manner to Messrs. Parker and
; Co., of Oxford, for

courteously permitting me to have electrotypes taken

of such of their blocks as I
required and to the
;

Council of the Royal Archaeological Institute of Great

Britain and Ireland for a similar permission.
To Father J. S. Walford, S.J., are due the admirable
translations of the Votum of Erasmus, and the anthem
Nesciens Mater.
To Father A. G. Knight, S.J., who kindly sub
mitted to the labour of the final revision of my work,

my warmest thanks are given.

I
humbly submit what I have written to the
Infallible Judgment of the One Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church, protesting before God, and the
Chivalry of Heaven, that what She may approve
I
approve, and that what She may condemn, I, by
anticipation, condemn. Loquatur Petrus, Petrum sequor.
I also make
the usual protest, in accordance with the
Decree dated the i3th of March, 1625, of Urban the
Eighth.
And laying this most feeble tribute of love,
in

gratitude, and duty, at the feet of the Most Glorious

and Blissful Queen of Heaven, the Immaculately-
conceived Maiden Mother of God, our Dear Ladye
Saint Marye, whose Dower England is, I, as her

hereditary liegeman of that Dower, do with all

humility pray, as my forefathers of twenty-eight
generations have prayed before
me, that she would
vouchsafe to be my Mediatrix with her Divine Son,
my Judge, and to intercede for me with Him, so
that He be merciful to me at the dread hour of
death, propter amorem Matris suce.
xii Preface.

Que grace plustot que mon nitrite me permet

si vostre

d attendre qiielque later d un sertdce a vous deub, que ce

soit done celuy O Roine dSbonnaire quauez promts aux
plus affectionez de vos humbles cliens qui ehicideroient la
Gloire de vostre nom, lo ier incomparable de la vie

tternelle.

EDMUND WATERTON,
Knight of Christ.

Athenaum Club,
Pall Mall.
 CONTENTS.

DEDICATION
PREFACE

BOOK THE FIRST.

History of English Devotion to our Ladyt.

Introduction

PART THE FIRST.

OUR LADYE AND HER LIEGEMEN.

Chapter the First. England the Dower of Marye 1 1

Chapter the Second. Our Blessed Ladye s Name .... 18

Chapter the Third. First Fruits.

Section i. Childhood and Boyhood 22
Section 2. Oxford and Cambridge
32
Chapter the Fourth. Universal Homage.
Section r.
Kings ,3
Section 2. Knights and Orders of Knighthood . . .
.41
Section 3. Shipmen 48
Section 4. Serjeants-at-La\v -3
Section Authors and Printers
5.
^
Section 6. Innholders
65

PART THE SECOND.

FORMS OF HOMAGE.

Chapter the First. Shrines.

Section i. Churches. Organs and Bells. Wax Images . 66
Section 2. Ladye Chapels. Loreto Chapels. Other Ladye Chapels 75
xiv Contents.
page
Section 3. Ladye Altars. Inscriptions. Candles. Relics . .
79
Chapter the Second. Associations.

Section i. Gilds ... 94

Section 2. The Sodality 99
Chapter the Third. Devotions and Good Works.
Section i.
Pilgrimages. Processions. Alms. Fasting . . . 106

Section 2. The Marye Mass 119

Section 3. Office. Little Office of the Immaculate Conception.
Anthems. Saturdays .122
Section 4. The Angelus 143
Section 5. The Beads 147
Section 6. Our Blessed Ladye s Litanies 168
Section 7. Other Devotions 171
Sections. Comparison of Old and New 177

Chapter the Fourth. Things Consecrated.

Section i. Cities and Municipal Corporations . . . .182
Section 2. Land 187
Section 3. Ladye Wells 191
Section 4. Flowers 193
Section 5. Household Furniture 201
Section 6. Details of Common Life 205
Section 7. Death and Burial 211

PART THE THIRD.

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF OUR BLESSED LADYE IN ENGLAND.

Section i.
Preliminary Remarks 221
Section 2. The Immaculate Conception 227
Section 3. The Annunciation 233
Section 4. Our Ladye in Gesine 234
Section 5. The Assumption 236
Section 6. Our Ladye of Pity 238
Section 7. Our Ladye of Grace 242
Section 8. Our Ladye of Peace 243
Section 9. Beauty of English Images of our Ladye .... 244
 Contents. xv

Section 10. The Robing of Statues of our Blessed

Ladye . .
250
Section ii.
Colouring of Statues 252
Section 12. Veils 2 t,
Section 13. Our Ladye s Feet
354
Section 14. The Crowning of Statues of our Blessed
Ladye .
.255
Section 15. Birds
25 8
Section 16. Opening Statues 260
Section 17. Relics in Statues 260
Section 1 8.
Offerings to Sanctuaries of our Ladye . . . .260
Section 19. Conclusion 26

BOOK THE SECOND.

Catalogue of Shrines, Sanctuaries, Offerings, Bequests, &c. . . i

Addenda et Corrigenda -
1
-

Alphabetical List of Principal Places mentioned in Book the Second .

317
 BOOK THE FIRST.

History of English Devotion to our Ladye.

 INTRODUCTION.

Da
mi/ii, O Diva, qiiain prccsenleni animo contemplor, quod pie sanctcque
institui rite ct feliciter exscqui, No mini ct cultiii tuo
propaganda, pictati ct
sanctimonies augendce; quos duos profiteer hide scriptioni esse fines.
1
Justus Lipsius.

SOME years ago the Faith of our Fathers did not burn with its
usual English brilliancy in certain quarters. The Litany of
our Blessed Ladye began to be distasteful endeavours were ;

made to introduce a modified form of

on the plea that it it

would be "more acceptable to converts;" 2 and in one church

the image of our Ladye, which had been erected over her altar,
was removed to satisfy the prejudices of divers weak members
"
"

of the congregation. 3 This proceeding was a disgrace to all

concerned I fear our common Profession of Faith must have
"
"

grown somewhat out of use in those parts. Some, only in

name Catholics, not satisfied with recording their protest against
the introduction into England of Italian terms of endearment
in addressing our Ladye, seem really to have believed that
Italians went quite too far in the love itself which prompted
such expressions. They complained that the Italian form of
"

was far too pronounced for us a sort

"

devotion to the Virgin

of exotic not suited to our northern clime, and only kept alive
by the care of a few well-meaning but inexperienced neophytes ;

that it was not adapted to the spirit of the age, and that it was

widely different from the old English practice of that devotion.

If it was widely different, the following pages, I think, will
show that at least it was not more fervent or outspoken. In
heartiness of affection and emphasis of speech the devotion to

1
D. Virgo Hallensis. Antv. 1616, p. 3.
2
See Essays on Various Subjects. By his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman. London,
1853, vol. i.
pp. 37743-
3
Life of Mother Margaret Mary HaUahan. London, 1870, pp. 157, 159.
4 Introduction.

our Blessed Ladye, as practised by our Anglo-Saxon forefathers,

and by the descendants of those who accompanied William the
Norman into England is second to none in the world. The
Italian will call our Ladyc mamma mia as a term of the greatest
endearment ;
but the Englishman, who does not quite appre
ciate the language, prefers, after his blunt fashion, to address
her as "Holy God, and my Mother."
Marye, Mother of
St. Alphonsus Liguori was especially blamed for extravagance

of language in his book entitled the Glories of Mary, but that

work in a collection of the sayings and
grand is, reality, only
sentiments of the Fathers of the Church of all ages, blended
of this tribute
together in a sweet harmony nor is any portion ;

of praise offered by a great Saint in the eighteenth century

more in its tone than
"pronounced" good orison to our "a

made
Englishmenfor twelfth or thirteenth
of the
Ladye"

century, which singly might suffice to show that enthusiastic

of Marye is not a plant matured under more sunny
worship
skies, and little suited to our temperate zone.

Christ s meek Mother, Saint Marye !

My life s light,beloved Ladye

my !

To thee I bow and my knee I bend,

And all my heart s blood to thee I offer.
Thou my soul s light, and my heart s bliss
art !

My and
life my hope, my safety therewith indeed.
I ought to honour thee with all my might,

And sing the song of praise by day and night,

For thou hast holpen me in many ways,
And brought me out of hell into Paradise.
Ithank thee for it, my beloved Ladye,
And will thank thee while I live. 4

The English love of our Ladye, which prompted

fine old

English Lay," has left, in spite of desecrated churches,

"

this
and plundered shrines, and mutilated images, indelible traces
all around which it will be my pleasant task to try to enumerate.

It is written in letters which he who runs may read, that the

Blessed Mother of God was once the Ladye of the land ;
and
stillher gentle influence may be felt within the confines of her
ancient Dower, though it is sadly true that she is not loved as

4
Old English Homilies of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Series I. Early
Eng. Text Soc. vol. xxxiv. p. 120, n. 190. The orison is given at full length by
Father Bridgett in the Dowry of our Ladye, pp. 143, seq. London, 1875.
 Introduction. 5

her liegemen loved her in other days. Even those who have
been taught that it is wicked to name her name in prayer, yet
call their children by that sacred name by force of habit or

unrecognized tradition, and many a grace her holy hands bestow

on those who, not in malice but in ignorance, try to please her
Son without seeking aid from her.
Perhaps the simplest and the clearest proof that our Blessed
Ladye still deigns to show her power in England may be found
in the unreasoning enmity manifested by the dignitaries of the
Church as by law established. Her image as Mother of God
exerts a strange influence over them, seeming to cause in
stinctive dread. In a place of worship, as an object of venera
tion it cannot be tolerated but mark the inconsistency
;
! A
picture by Cimabue, Giotto,
Beato Angelico of Fiesole, or
Raphael, which represents the Blessed Virgin Marye as the
Mother of God, is by an Anglican lover of the fine arts able to
at any price, and regarded
gratify his taste, eagerly purchased
as a faithful exposition of true Gospel history. He does not
consider the subject mythological, or the treatment savouring
of idolatry. This only he never doubts, that a picture of the
Mother of God is quite out of place in a temple dedicated to
her Son. With many Anglican divines it seems to be a

point to lose no opportunity of waging war, like Nestorius,

against the Mother of God. They take as addressed to them
selves, we must suppose, the celebrated words in Genesis which
were uttered to the father of sin : Inimicitias ponam inter tc ct

nnilicrem? According to some of them the Mother of God is

not a "Scriptural character;" therefore her image is removed
from the north door which is peculiarly her door of a cathe

dral, as at Bristol.
6
It is utterly incomprehensible how any
one who recites the Apostles Creed or the Magnificat, both of
which are included Liturgy as set forth in
in the Protestant
5
Gen. iii. 15.
* In the following pages a capital S in the references refers to
S. pp. 223, 224.
of the Sanctuaries,
the second portion of this work containing the Series or Catalogue
&c. I have recently seen a photograph of this image of our
Blessed Ladye, which

theDean declared to be of an "unscriptural character" (see S. p. 224). The group

of the
which was considered to be so objectionable represents in reality the adoration
Three Kings Our Ladye seated with her Divine Son on her knee forms the centre,
!

two of the Magi are on their knees presenting their offerings to our Lord, the
third is

to come with his gifts, and St. Joseph is standing on the

standing behind, waiting
other side,
6 Introduction.

the Book of Common Prayer, could hold such an opinion. But

Bristol enjoys an unhappy notoriety. 1851, during the In
excitement caused by the anti-Papal agitation, it was proposed
to drag the image of our Blessed Ladye through the streets
in derision, and At the church of St. Marye, Abbot s
flog it !
7

8
Kensington, it was intended by the restorers of the edifice to
represent our Ladye with her Divine Son on her knee, according
to the ancient seal, and a beautiful image was carved in stone ;

but the authorities insisted that our Lord must be removed

from His Mother s knee, and the Bible substituted for Him.
Our Ladye thus represented is now placed above the east
window, on the outside of the church, and below are the words,
Ecce ancilla Domini, It is not, perhaps, surprising that the

parishioners should mistake this extraordinary representation

of our Ladye for Queen Elizabeth Catholics, on the other
!

hand, raise their hats as they pass by, and salute our Ladye,
thus deprived of her Son.
The words of Ward vividly recur

O horrible What work they made

!
;

There you might see an impious clown

Breaking our Saviour s image down.

Here you might see another stand,

Hacking with axe in cruel hand
The Infant in our Ladye s lap. J

The armorial bearings of the old Catholic sees of Salisbury

and Lincoln have our Blessed Ladye with her Divine Son in
her arms, and are yet borne, as a matter of course, by the Angli
can dignitaries who occupy those sees; but in 1846 the
Bishop
of Exeter withdrew his name from the Archaeological
Society
of Cambridge on the plea that the seal of that Society bore the
image of our Ladye, crowned, with her Divine Son in her arms,
and two other saints unknown to his calendar. This the Bishop
considered as a gratuitous insult to the feelings of Protestants,
and therefore he believed it to be his duty to make a protest
7
Life of Mother Hallahan, p. 325.
8
This is the correct designation of the Church, which in the
Vestry and other
notices is usually given as St. Mary Abbots.
Kensington belonged to the Abbot of
Reading; hence the appellation. See Faulkner, Hist, and Antiq. of Kensington.
Lond. 1820, pp. 60, 61.
England s Reformation. London, 1719, canto i. p. 96.
 Introduction. 7

by withdrawing from the Society, which, nevertheless, has con

tinued to flourish. Yet they profess to read the Bible. Some
there are who have eyes, yet see not others read, and under ;

stand not that which they read, because they have no rule
of faith, and in darkness and the shadow of death." 10
"sit

Practically, would seem, few Protestants admit the Blessed

it

Virgin to be the Mother of God. Yet to deny her this title is

to fall into the heresy of Nestorius, who was not a Christian
because he refused to believe that Jesus, the Son of Mary, was
God. It is logically impossible to accept the New Testament
and to refuse to honour the Mother of God and it is equally ;

impossible to refuse to honour the Blessed Virgin Marye

without denying the truth of the Incarnation.
But I by no means wish to be understood as maintaining
that all Anglicans approve of these acts, or share in these

opinions, of many members of their communion. Many rever

ence the Blessed Virgin in sincerity of heart, and give her the
title of Blessed. I once went to see the Protestant church of

St. Alban s, in Baldwin Gardens, and

there, on the right of the
chancel-arch, beheld a picture of our Blessed Ladye with her
I

Divine Son in her arms, and two candlesticks with wax tapers
before it. It is very gratifying to see our Ladye s light on a
bracket in a Protestant church. And one very remarkable
Protestant prayer-book, entitled Oratory WorsJtip, by Brother "

Cecil, S.SJ." these cabalistic letters appear to mean "of the

"

Society of St. Joseph contains the Rosary of the Blessed

"

Virgin Marye;" the Angelus, and Regina Cceli ; the Salve

Regina ; the Memorare ; two Litanies of the Incarnation,"
"

one of which is a "Litany of our Ladye;" and a "Litany of

Reparation to Jesus for want of devotion to His Blessed
and sundry hymns to our Ladye and St. Joseph. 11
Mother,"

Mr. Lyne, who has dubbed himself Brother Ignatius, O.S.B.,"

"

12
strenuously inculcates the recital of the Hail Marye.

10
St. Luke i.
79.
11
Oratory Worship ; containing Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and other
devotions, minutely rubricated. Edited by Brother Cecil, S.S.J. (permissu superi-
orum). London, The Church Press Company, 13, Burleigh Street, Strand. 1869,
PP- 5057, 59, 60, 61, 63, 66.
as
Llanthony Tales, vol. ii. pp.IOI, 216. London, Bentley, 1871. In vol. ii.
p, of the Llanthony Tales, entitled, "Leonard Morris, or the Benedictine
ipi
Novice, by the Rev. Father Ignatius," is given the following paragraph, which .1
8 Introduction*

In truth, the limits of the devotion due to the Blessed Virgin

are very carefully laid down by Holy Church. To God, and
to God alone, is due Divine honour, or latria. The Saints
receive an inferior honour, distinguished as dnlia, which honour
in a superior degree, designated as Jtyperdulia, is given to our

Ladye, and to her alone. The whole doctrine is fully set forth in
the Catechism, which every school-child is taught, as soon as
he can learn nevertheless it seems to perplex the majority of
;

Protestants. Hence Mariolatry, a word which is evidently used

to denote Divine honour paid to Marye, and with which they
seem to be so familiar, since they have no other idea of
devotion to our Ladye, does not, and cannot, and could not
exist in the Church. The Collyridian heretics attempted
to introduce Mariolatry, but the folly began and ended with
them. From the writings of the English Fathers, Bede the
Venerable, Alcwine, St. Anselm, St. Edmund, Archbishop
Baldwin, and many easy to see how grateful and
others, it is

pleasing to our forefathers were the praises of our Ladye. Thus

it was that her love burnt so brightly in England and like ;

the mystic cloud, covered the land, and pervaded everywhere.

it

Her image graced the royal Crown of England our kings ;

invoked her in their hour of danger the warrior wore her ;

image on his surcoat, or engraved on his keen-edged falchion ;

the earl constituted her the lady of his lands, and himself her
vassal fields were held by the service of reciting so many Aves
;

yearly alms given in her love were called our Ladye s meat,
;

and our Ladye s loaf; the shopman painted her on his sign-

presume describes the practices of Mr. Lyne s Anglican Community. The abbot "

felt that there was something seriously important, and gave orders that the monks

should at midnight go barefoot in procession to the shrine of the Blessed Virgin in

the wood, in the ravine under the abbey, reciting the fifty-first Psalm, as they walked
through the deep snow. When they reached the shrine they were to repeat one
hundred Our Fathers and one hundred Hail Mary s for the conversion of Captain
Scott." Another curious passage, and expressed in still more objectionable language,
occurs at p. 216 : The devil seems checkmated for once somehow, whispered our
"

old friend Brother Oswald to his companion Brother Pancras. I have a queer feeling
that something out of the ordinary way has happened. I fancy that hundred Hail

Mary s last night at Matins are taking effect, if they have not already done so.
"

"

Our friend Brother Oswald s piety had not become any more sentimental than when
he used bothering the Blessed Virgin with Hail Mary s for Brother
to talk of
Placidus.Indeed, the young novice still said, he never should make what he called
"

a pious saint I spare my readers any further infliction of extracts so offensive

!

to Catholic ears.
 Introduction. g

board prosperous merchants built churches and bedehouses

;

in her honour the sailor named his ship after her, and when
;

tossed on the raging billow, invoked the Bright Star of the Sea.
Now what was the practical result of this truly national and
popular devotion to our Blessed Ladye ? Simply this. It

made men love God. It spoke to the unlettered by signs. It

constantly reminded every one of the Incarnation. It softened

stubborn nature, for no one could refuse a favour when asked

in our Ladye name. It represented everywhere the Blessed
s

and Immaculate Mother of God with her Divine Son in her

arms, in the homeliest and most domestic of types, Mother and
Child. This it was that humanized, so to say, rough nature. 13
Men learned to respect the female sex, for our Ladye s love.

Wife-kicking and wife-beating, which now, unfortunately, are

of such common occurrence, were crimes unknown in the days
when England was Catholic. Did a man feel angry with his
wife, his passion was calmed by the sight of the little image
of the Immaculate Mother of God with her Divine Child in her
arms over the chimney-piece for who, that said the Hail
;

Marye, could ever strike his wife No better illustration of

!

the spirit of this devotion need be sought than in the hymn

of the Church to our Ladye

Virgo singnlaris,
Inter omnes mitis,
Nos, culpis solntos
Mites fac, et castos.

13
Cf. Ilaxthausen, Transcaucasia, c. x. pp. 344, 345, quoted by Marshall,
Christian Missions, vol. ii. pp. 581 583.
DIGNARE ME LAUDARE TE, VIRGO SACRATA,
DA MIHI VIRTUTEM CONTRA HOSTES TUOS.
 PART THE FIRST.
Our Ladye and her Liegemen.

CHAPTER THE FIRST.

England the Dower of Marye.

Dos tna, Virgo pia hcec est ; quare rege Maria
Words attributed to Richard the Second, King of England.

MANY nations, in addition to their usual nomenclature, have

other titles in hagiology, either on account of some particular
act of consecrationby their sovereigns to our Blessed Ladye,
or from some other special reason, or conscnsu gentium. Thus
Ireland, whose hierarchy represents an unbroken line from
St. Patrick, and whose national religion is still the faith of
Christ our Lord which the Saint taught, and not the creed of
the Thirty-Nine Articles, has long been known, conscnsu
gentium, as the Island of Saints. But the
dear realm
of Engle-land,

the home of St. Cuthbert and Bede the Venerable, of St.

Eadward and other saints of our Anglo-Saxon Church ;
of
St. Thomas of Canterbury the "blissful martyr," the glorious
St. Edmund of Abingdon, and St. Simon Stock of the Anglo-
Norman Church and other men and women,
;
saints of God,
down to Sir Thomas More, once Lord High Chancellor of
England, and Cardinal Fisher both of them glorious martyrs,
England, I say, which has produced this galaxy of devout
1
clients of our "precious Ladye," alone rejoices in the
grand title of Dos MARI/E, the Dower of Blessed Marye the
1
So called in the Ancren Riwle, p. 77, Camclen Soc.
 1 2 England the Dower of Marye.

Virgin Mother of God and Queen of Heaven. And this

beautiful title still remains the inheritance and possession of our

sea-girt isle. Would that we were as worthy of it as our
fathers before us.
In different ages many nations and kingdoms have been
solemnly consecrated to our Blessed Ladye. Emperors and
kings were proud to be the vassals of her who is the Mother of

the King of kings by Whom kings reign, and, as our Anglo-

Saxon forefathers called her, the Queen of the whole world. 2
It is greatly to be regretted that hitherto no record has been

discovered cither of the occasion or the circumstances under

which England was consecrated to the glorious Mother of God
and given to her for her dower. Dos implies an act of dotation
and endowment and Ducange particularly mentions that, in
;

English practice, dos signifies the gift with which the husband
endows his wife in the marriage contract. Equally, dos is applied
to the dower of a church thus Berhtuulf, King of Mercia, ;

having endowed Croyland with some lands, says in his charter,

dated Friday, March 27, A.D. 851 cst Itcercditas Domini, : Ha>c

dos ecclcsice Christi, solum Sanctce Maria?

A
legend relates that on one occasion our Blessed Ladye
appeared to St. Simon Stock, and told him that she took
4
England for her dower ;
but I have searched, and hitherto in

8
Aelfric s Homilies. Edit. Thorpe, vol. i.
p. 439. The Irish invoked her as
"

Lady or Mistress of the Tribes ;

"

see the Leabhar Mor, now called Leabhar breac,

f. Royal Irish
121, in the Library of the Academy. O Curry, MSS. of Irish Hist,
p. 380; and Append, p. 615, n. cxxiii. Hungary is called the Familia Mariana
(Act. SS. t. 45, p. 772) ; Mexico, the Natio Mariana (Pareri de Vescozi snlla difi-
1

nizione deW Immacolato Concepimcnto della B. V.M. Roma, 1851-4, vol. iii. p. 175) ;
France is the Rcgnum Mariic ; and Flanders the Patrimony of the Blessed Virgin
(Le S. Pelerinage de N. D. dc la Paix a Ennetieres-en- Wappes, par le R. P. Possoz de
la Comp. de Jesus. Tournai, 1859, p. 7). For other interesting particulars of nations
consecrated to our Ladye cf. Bonfinius, Rent in Ungaric. decad. ii. lib. i. p. 179.
Francofurti, 1581 ; also Goldonowski, Diva Clarainontana. Cracovke, 1642 ; also
Gueranger, Liturgical Year. Dublin, 1867. Advent, p. 402, but the date mentioned
is incorrect (cf. Zurita, Annales de Arragon. Sarago9a, 1610, lib. x. p. 414) ;
also

Gravois, de ortu et progressit cultiis acfesli Itnin. Concept. B. Dei Genitr. V.M. Lucae,
1764, Summar. p. 32; also Pareri dS Vescovi, vol. i. p. 262; vol. ix. p. 129; also
Marracci, Cirsares Mariani, cap. v. vi. ; also Libellus de Sodalitate B. V.M, auct. R.

P. Fran. Costero e S.J. Antv. 1607 in pra.Tat.

3
Cod. Dipl. Aevi Sax. vol. ii. p. 41, ch. cclxv.
4
Quoted as a legend (i) in the Little Gradual. By Ambrose Lisle Phillipps.
London, 1847, p. 94; and by Northcote, Celebrated Sanctuaries of the Madonna,
London, 1868, p. 286, note.
 England the Dower of Marye. 1 3

vain, for anyauthority for this alleged vision.

solid The
Benedictine, Bucelin, says that Eadgar the Peaceful consecrated
England to our Ladye, but in the Series, under the head of
Glastonbury, I have shown his misconception. 5
The historian, F. Alford, alias Griffiths, S.J., says that in all
ages Britain devoutly venerated the Blessed Virgin Marye, and,
that in consequence of the pre-eminent devotion of the British
the Anglo-Saxons, and the Anglo-Normans to her, England
deserved to be named Dos Maries. He also adds that in his
time there existed in the English College at Rome an ancient
painting of a King and Queen, who, on their knees, are making
an offering of England to our Blessed Ladye for her dower
through the hands of St. John, with this inscription Dos tua :

Virgo pia hczc est, quare regc, Maria?

Now these were the portraits of Richard the Second, King
of England,and his Queen, daughter of the Emperor
Charles IV. and the attitude in which they are represented
;

would certainly seem to commemorate some act of consecration

or donation, on their part, of England, to our Blessed Ladye for
her dower. I have been unable to trace the history of this
picture, or to ascertain any details about it but it was not in ;

the English College when the first students were sent out from
England to take repossession of it in the year 1818. Neither
have I found England described as being the dower of our

Ladye earlier than the reign of Richard the Second, but it is

then spoken of as an acknowledged fact.
Father Adrian Van Lyere, or as his name is Latinized,
Lyrseus, S.J., one of the Edwards gave England to
asserts that
our Ladye, for her dower, but quotes no authority, adding, that
this donation was afterwards confirmed by Richard the Second,
as is to be seen in a very ancient picture in the English College
in Rome, together with the inscription which I have already
7
cited.
This evidence tends to show that at some period England
was solemnly consecrated to our Blessed Ladye as her
dower.
A precious document of the last year of Richard the Second,
5
S. p. 46.
6
Fides Regia Anglka. Leodii, 1663, torn. i.
p. 57,
7
Trisagium Marianum. Antv. 1648, p, 324.
 14 England the Dower of Marye.
8
X
399>
describesEngland as the Dos Maries common par "in

lance," so that thistitle was then well known. At the special

desire of the King whose name is not mentioned Thomas
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, issued a mandate, dated
at Lambeth, the loth of February, 1399, in which these words
occur :

The contemplation of the great mystery of the Incarnation

"

has brought all Christian nations to venerate her from whom

came the beginnings of redemption. But we, as the humble
servants of her own inheritance, and liegemen of her especial
dower, as are approved by common parlance
we nos quidcui
veluti proprite sues hareditatis servuli, ac peculiaris Dotis adscrip-

titii, ut communi comprobamur cloquio ought to excel all others

in the fervour of our praises and devotions to her." 9
Dom Thomas of Elmham, a Benedictine monk of St.

Augustine s, Canterbury, wrote a metrical life of Henry the

10
Fifth, and most probably during the lifetime of the King, who
reigned from March 21, 1415, till August 31, 1422. In this
work, which is divided into regnal years, England is several
times called the Dos Maria*. Thus in the third year, when the
King enters Normandy.
Dextra Dei regem regit mediante Marid
11
Cui Dos Anglia stat.

Then in the description of the battle of Azincourt

. . . sacerdotes a tergo vociferantur
Cum gemitu, Nostri mine miserere Dens !
Nunc miserere Deus ! Anglorum parce corona,
Regiajurafave; pro pietate iua
Virgo Maria fave, propria pro Dote. . . ,
12

In the fifth year, when asserting that the crown of France had
belonged to England from the time of Edward the Second, jure
nxoris, Thomas of Elmham thus terminates the chapter

8
The reign of Richard the Second ceased on the day of his abdication, the agth
September ; and it is proved by the Rolls of Parliament that Henry the Fourth
became King on the 3Oth of the same month (Harris Nicolas, Chronology of History.
London, 1833, P- 3 2 )-
Wilkins, Concilia, torn. iii. p. 246.
19
Liber Metriciis de Henrico V. printed in the Memorials of Henry the Fifth.
Rolls Edit.
11
P. 106, lines 247, 248.
12
P, 121, lines 525, seq.
 England the Denver of Marye. 1 5

Rex Judeorum Jesus est, ut origine Matris,

Sic Rex Anglorum lilia Franca legit.
Anglia Dos tua fit Mater pia, Virgo Maria
Henrico Rege^ in tua jura

He concludes his poem with be sung by the

a "hymn to

English people Marye Mother

in the praise of of God, for the
the favourable expedition of King Henry the Fifth, and for the
assistance she afforded the Kingdom of England, her dower,
and who, by her prayers, has destroyed all heresies, together
with the heresiarch, John Oldcastel." This hymn is what is
called a Te Dcum Mariafe, or an adaptation or paraphrase of
the Te Deum in honour of the Blessed Mother of God, and it is
shorter than the well-known one usually attributed to St. Bona-
venture. u I shall give only two verses

Te ergo qnasnmus Angligenis subveni quos pro Dote Propria defendisti.

Salvum fac populum tuum, Domina, et a mortis peste Dotem tuam liberal

The MS. concludes with a prayer to our Blessed Ladye, in

the form of an acrostic, giving the name and profession of the
writer, THOMAS ELMHAM, MONACHUS : it is a prayer in which
all our Ladye s liegemen may join

Te Matrem Christi precc Ian damns jnbilantes;

Hastes depclle,florcat Alma Fides.
Obsta schismaticts, herescs prece destrue cunctas,
Monstra te Matrem, libera stet tua Dos. 10

Thus from a mandate of the Archbishop of Canterbury,

issued at the close of the fourteenth century, there is positive
evidence that England was then well known as our Ladye s
dower, and Englishmen as the liegemen of her especial dower,
"

13
P. 154, lines 1180, seq.
Forms of the Te Deum Mariale were common. Another was composed by John
14

Bracey, Abbot of Michelney, in Somerset, A.D. 1470 1489, and is given in the preface
to the Memorials of King Henry the Fifth. Rolls Edit. p. Ixi. Another quite
differentfrom the three already named is inserted in the Viage Literario a las Iglcsias
de Espafia, vol. i. p. 108, where it is described as being copied from a MS. of the
fourteenth century in the Library of the Cathedral of Valencia. I have also two

others, one in the Hortulus Anititir, Mogunt. 1511; the other in the Septem Hore
Canonice, composed by Albert de Bonstetten, chaplain to the Court of Frederic the
Third, Emperor of the Romans, in 1493. The book consists of twenty-eight leaves,
without either place, date, or name of printer.
15
P. 164.
16
P. 166.
1 6 England the Dower of Marye.

as they were approved in common parlance." And Thomas of

Elmham corroborates it in the early part of the next century.
England has never lost the glorious title of our Ladye s
dower. It is quite true that England away from the unity
fell

of the faith of Christ, and that the sweet name of the Blessed
Mother of God was blasphemed and reviled in her dower, but
although our Ladye lost for a while the full possession, so to
say, of her ancient dower, England never lost the name of
dower of our Ladye, which through all the dark ages of apos-
tacy and of persecution remained unchallenged and unques
tioned, because it is territorial, and belongs to the soil of
England hallowed with the blood of martyrs, not to the people,
who were, as I have shown, the "

liegemen
"

of that dower.
Consequently England is as truly the dower of our Ladye as
England is England. But even if, according to the Te Dcum
Marialc just quoted, the title had more properly belonged to
the English than to England, it would still be retained, as I
proceed to show.
In the fourteenth century peerages by Letters Patent, and
limited to heirs male, were unknown. title by writ, onceA
created, becomes extinct only when every descendant or heir
general of the body of the grantee, has died out. I will, there

fore, consider our ancestors in the reign of Richard the Second

as a in whom was vested the title of Dos Maria.
body of men
Now no one, even of alien sympathies, would venture to assert
that the Catholic faith was ever wholly extinct in England.
The Penal Laws prove the contrary. Many ancient Catholic
houses which have outlived those laws, and have, by God s grace
and our Ladye s help, preserved the faith of their fathers as a
precious inheritance, at a heavy temporal sacrifice, and at the
cost of many a broad acre, still exist in male line, forming the

connecting links in the chain of faith which unites the old with
the revived English Church. Like the early Christians of the
Church in the catacombs, the English Catholics of the days of
the penal laws and the Church have given
"

in the hiding-places
"

a glorious period to our national history, and one which

neophytes do not always seem either to appreciate or to realize.
As a recent writer most appropriately remarks Much as we :
"

owe to the martyrs and confessors for the faith whose lot it has
been to bear witness to our Lord before tribunals, or in prisons,
 England the Dower of Marye. 17

great as are our obligations to the missionary priests, who went

about from place to place to administer the sacraments and to
preach the Word of God, during those troublesome times, we
must never forget our debt of gratitude to the great body of the
faithful, who had to suffer and bear witness in their turn from
time to time, as occasion required, while the
ordinary tenure of
their lives consisted in the quiet
practice of Christian virtues in
their own homes, and the of their children in the
bringing up
holy discipline of the Catholic Church. It is from this great
body that the martyrs and missionaries came forth." 17 Now the
members of these privileged English families which sent forth
martyrs and missionaries, and which themselves suffered a civil
martyrdom, are all hereditary liegemen of our Ladye s dower,
and descendants of the liegemen spoken of by the
Archbishop
of Canterbury in the reign of Richard the Second. How then
can England be said to have lost the title of our
Ladye s dower ?
Such an idea was never thought of during the last two
centuries and a half. An author writing in the year 1685 says :

England is by an immemorable privilege the proper dowry of

"

holy Mary the Mother of Jesus it

having ever been the ;

hereditary endeavour of the Catholic Kings and Queens of the

British Empire to propagate the
glory and veneration of the
Mother of Jesus, through their rich and potent kingdoms." 18
In the rare little book entitled, An Abridgement of the Rules
of the Sodality of our Blessed Ladyc under the charge of tlie

Society of Jesus at St. Omer s, printed there in the year 1726, it

is stated that the
object of this sodality is to promote true
devotion towards the Most Sovereign Queen of Heaven, so that
she may have, once again, a full and quiet possession of her
"

ancient dowry" This fully bears out my argument. Our Blessed

Ladye had and quiet possession of her
lost for a while the "full

ancient dowry," but, on the other hand, England has never lost
the title of dower of our Ladyc.

17
Month, Third Series, vol. viii. (xxvii.) pp. 407, 408.
18
Contemplations on the Life and Glory of Holy Mary the Mother ofJesus. By J.
C., D.D. Paris, 1685. Epist. dedicatory.
 CHAPTER THE SECOND.
Oiir Blessed Ladye s Name.

Cum nomen audio Maria; Virginis,

Vel sacris lectito scriptnm in paginis.
Sonus vcl litera sacri vocaminis
Pastit me recreat mirce dulcedinis^

FROM the earliest days of Christianity the name of our Blessed

Ladye has been held in the highest reverence although ;

curiously enough, veneration has differed widely in its

this

expression in different ages. At one time the name of Marye

was refused even to queens ;
at another, it was to be found in

almost every family.

"Although it is not sufficiently certain," says Benedict the
Fourteenth, name
"whether the of Marye was announced by
the Angel, and ordered by God to be conferred, as the name
of Jesus was, and that of His precursor, St. John ; nevertheless
the Church always had a great veneration for it, so much,
indeed, that women, although of royal birth, were not allowed
to bear it, as if the dignity of this holy name would be com

promised by being conferred upon women, even though they

5
were queens."

Many elapsed before the name of Marye was

centuries

habitually conferred or borne, and this out of reverence for our

Ladye. Nevertheless, a few early instances are mentioned by
Baronius in his edition of the Martyrologium.
To omit mention in detail of Poland, 3 Castile, 4 and other
1
Latin Poems, commonly attributed to Walter Map or Mapes, edited by
T. Wright, M.A., p. 196, Camden Soc. In the Magna Vita S. Hugonis his name
is given as Map, p. 280. Rolls Edit. As given by Wright the line runs Cum num-
quam audeo, &c. From the context it evidently should be Cum nomen audio,
8
De
Festis B.V.M. c. x.
3
Our Ladye was proclaimed Queen of Poland by a decree of the Diet in 1655
" "

under John Casimir from which time the Poles have continued to invoke her in the
;

Litany as Regina call et Polonia ; to which in Lithuania they add, "Duchess of

Lithuania"
(Montalembert, CEuvres, t. iv. p. 245, Paris, 1860). Cf. also Marracci,

Reges Mariani, c. iii. viii. and c. xvii. iv. also Theop. Raynaud, S.J., Diptych.
:

Marian. Opp. t. vii. punc. 2, n. 12.

4
Lyraus, Trisagiitm Marianuw, p. 395. Also Benedict XIV. I.e.
 Our Blessed Lactye s Name. 19
5
countries, in their mode of honouring the name of Marye it ;

may be noticed that the Council of Buda, in Hungary, A.D. 1279,

prescribes that all whenever they hear Ave Maria during Divine
Office shall reverently bow on bended knee. 6 The Ancren
Riwle, written in low West-Saxon about the year 1260 anti
7
cipates this rubric.
At what period the name of Marye began to be habitually
conferred in England, but I do not
I will not venture to say ;

remember have found an instance of it in the Saxon

to

Chronicle, or the Codex. Stowe, however, mentions that

St. Marye Overies, now St. Saviour s, in Southwark, was
originally founded as a house of sisters by a maiden named
Mary in Anglo-Saxon times. 8
Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers were wont to call the Blessed
Virgin, ure Lavedi, ure Lafti, our Ladye Saint Marye ; and this
form was continued by the Normans, and perpetuated to our
day, although endeavours have not been wanting on the part
of some with Italian sympathies to supplant this thoroughly
English name, a precious inheritance from our Catholic fore
fathers, by Madonna. "Our
Ladyc"
is
applied to the Blessed
Virgin alone Madonna is ;
not.
It difficult to mention a nation, except Ireland,
would be
which has not adopted this pleasing form of addressing our
Ladye. That solitary exception has its reason in the facility
afforded by a beautiful language for the use of terms which
to other nations would be impossible without the sacrifice of

elegance and euphony. The Fathers of the Greek and Latin

Church used the title Our Ladye constantly and continually
"
"

from the earliest ages. 9

5
Mabillon, Ada SS. O.S.B. srcc. vi. pt. i.
p. 692 ; Ada SS, t. 40, p. 527.
Labbe, Concilia, t. xi. col. 1077, Paris, 1672.
7
P. 19.
8
S. p. 140.
9 nostra. Domina
So too we find Notre Dame, Nostra Donna,
Astfvro/Va TJ/AUV,
Nuestra Senora, and Old Catalan, ma dona Santa Maria. In Germany and
in
the Low Countries our Ladye is called nnser Hebe Fran, onzc Lieve Vrouive,
i.e. our dear Ladye. Madonna was not applied exclusively to our Ladye,
thus Polo Capello calls Lucrezia Borgia Madonna Lucrezia, and the Fioretti
of St. Francis speaks of Madonna Giacoma or lacoma. Mone gives a hymn
of the fourteenth century in the Venetian dialect, in which our Ladye is
called Madona de le done. Cf. Fioretti di S. Francesco, Venice, 1585, ff. 72, 97 b.,

99 b, ; also Italian Relation of England, p. 23, Camden Soc. 1847 ; also Polo
2O Our Blessed Ladye s Name.

The Irish carried their reverence for the holy name of Marye
to a very remarkable degree. Influenced in early ages by

profound feelings of humility and respect, they never assumed

the names of the Blessed Virgin or of the Saints, reserving
them exclusively for those holy persons who had borne them,
and adopted the prefix of Mad or Mao!, so common in Irish
names, which signifies servant.
10
Thus Maelisa means servant
of Maelmuire, servant of Marye Maelphatraig or
Jesus ; ;

Maelpadraic,
11
servant of Patrick. Maelmuire was borne both
by men and women.
To quote at random from the many instances given by the
Four Masters :

A.D. 893. Maelmuire, son of Flannagan, Lord of Fcara-Li

died.
A.D. 964. Maelmuire. daughter of Nial, son of Aedh, died.

The chronicle of Hy records the death of Maelmuire,

daughter of Cinaedha mic Ailpin in 913. She was Queen
of

Fiunliath, monarch of Ireland from 863 to 879, and was mother

12
of Niall Glundubh, King of Ireland.

Capello, Rdazioni, &c., scrie 2, v.

iii.
p. 14, Firenze, 1846; also Monc, Hyinni
Latini Medii SEvi, v. ii. p. 168, Friburgi Brisgov. 1853; also Montargut, Hist, dc
N. Dame du Mont-Scrrat, p. 241, Paris, 1697 ; also Teutsfh Romisch Brevier, trans
lated from the Latin for the use of Nuns, p. 491, Augspurg, 1535; also S. p. 202.
In Spain children often receive the name of one of the feasts of our Ladye, such as
Concebida, Annunciata, Dolores, Rosaria, Assunta, and the like. At Cremona, in
Andalusia, there is a celebrated sanctuary of Our Ladye of Grace, and nearly every
woman there is called Gracias. Cf. Martorelli, Tcatro Istorico ddla S. Casa
Nazarena, v. ii.
p. 406 ;
also Essays on Various Subjects, by Card. Wiseman, v. i.

p. 451, Loncl.
1853. To this day nearly all the women inhabiting the broken
remnants of the old Reductions in Paraguay bear the name of Marye, together with
some one or other of our Ladye s titles by which latter denomination they are
familiarly called, as Loreto, Asuncion, Dolores, Parto, Rosario, Immacolata, and
the like. Month, new series, vol. i. (xii.)
p. 519, note. Mrs. Jameson was greatly
mistaken when she said that the of our Lady came first into general use in
"title

the days of chivalry, for she was the Lady of all hearts, whose colours all were
proud to wear" (Legends of the Madonna, introcl. p. xxvi. Edit. 1872).
10
Memoir introductory to the early history of Primacy of Armagh, p. 87. By
Robert King, M.A. (privately printed). Armagh, 1854.
11
A.D. 923. Maelpadraic mac Morain princeps de Druimcliabh et de Airdsratha
mortuus est. Chron, Hyense. p. 391. Rolls Edit.
12
Ibid. p. 392. P. Goffinet, S.J., who accompanied the Abyssinian expedition
in 1868, mentions that on the 28th of May he met a good priest called Ghebra

Miriam, or servant of Marye Precis Historiques, v. xxvi. (2 ser. v. vi.) p. 515. Cf.
also II Gran Nome cli Maria, c., opera del P. Domenico Antonio Moscati della

Comp. cli Gesu, Napoli, 1749.

 O^tr Blessed Ladye s Name. 21

No translation can give the full beauty of this unique and

happy combination; and few would guess that the real name of
the celebrated monk of Ratisbon, known under the Latinized
form of Marianus Scotus, was, in reality, Maelmuire.
Giolla or Gilla, a servant, whence the term, gilly, gillie, is

also used as a prefix thus in the Four Masters

;
:

A.D. 1018. Gillamuire, son of Ceinneidigh, was killed.

A.D. 1159. Gillamuire, Ankoret of Ard-macha, died.
The Eulogium Historiarnm says that King Arthur, after
13
going to Ireland, took King Gillamurius prisoner.
These combinations yet survive in the family surnames of
Gilchrist and Gilmurray, meaning servant of Christ and servant
of Marye.
One curious fact is mentioned in the life of St. Godric, by
Reginald of Durham his contemporary. A maiden, Juliana,
had been miraculously cured at the tomb of the saint, and
changed her name into that of Marye.
14
This would seem as
if, having been chosen by God as an object for the manifestation

of His Divine power, she was now considered as

worthy of
bearing the sweet name of the Mother of God.
Many villages and hamlets in the United Kingdom yet bear
the names which they received in the ages of faith. We find
Ottery St. Mary, St. Mary Tavy, and St. Mary Clist, in Devon
shire St. Marychurch and St. Mary Hiil, in St.
;
Glamorgan ;

Mary Bourne, in Hants St. Mary s Bridge, in Derbyshire; ;

St. Mary s Cray and St. Mary, in Kent St. Mary s, in Hunt ;

ingdon, Norfolk, and Morayshire Maryculter and Marykirk, in ;

Kincardine Maryburgh,;
in the shires of Ross, Kinross, and
Inverness: Maryhill, in Lanark; Marypark, in Banff; Maryton
and Marywell, in Forfarshire Maryport, in Cumberland ; ;

Maryston, in Devon and Marylebone (Marie la bonne) near

;

Wigan, and in London Ladybank, in Fife Lady s Bridge, in

; ;

Banff Ladyburn, in Renfrewshire Ladyhall, in Cumberland

; ; ;

Ladykirk, in Orkney, and in Berwick Ladylands, Stirling ; ;

and Ladywcll, in Kent, 15 and in Wales the ever recurring

Llanvair (Church of Mary).
J
Eulogium historiarium, &c., a quodam monacho Malmcsburiensi exaratum,
vol. ii.
p. 319. Rolls Edit.
J4
Libdlus de vita S, Godrici, p. 435. Surtces Society.
10
Raihvav and Commercial Gazetteer of England, Scotland, and Wales, London,
1869.
 CHAPTER THE THIRD.
First Fruits.

I. CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD.

Maxima debetur puero reverentia.

BRITISH children were carefully trained up in the love of our

Ladye. Great a boy, was sent by
St. Dunstan, whilst yet
his parents to Glastonbury to devote himself to the service
1
of God, and of Blessed Maryc Mother of God. St. Margaret

of Scotland instructed her children, amongst other things, to

give a sovereign honour and absolute adoration to the Most
Blessed Trinity and to have a particular respect and devotion
;

2
to the Most Blessed Virgin the Mother of God. This is what
is related of the early youth of St. Thomas of Canterbury in
the Icelandic Saga of the Blissful Martyr."
"

blessed Thomas grew up in London, obedient to

"The

father and to mother, pleasing and gentle towards every man,

bright and blithe of visage, and of a turn of countenance, as it
seemed to wise men, that the sweetness of God s grace was
clearly seen in him. And now since this is the first season of
learning inthe growing up of man, that a good and loving
mother talketh Christian words to him, maketh known unto
him the fear of God, and teacheth him holy lore, so young
Thomas hath even such a school to begin with, for his mother
Maild was both wise and willing to give counsels to him. Con
cerning these counsels there is this, amongst other matters, to
be read, that she taught him to adore and reverence the
Blessed Maiden, God s Mother Mary, beyond all other saints,
and to select her as the wisest guide of his life and of all his
ways and without doubt the blessed Thomas took this good
;

counsel readily to his heart, to love our Lady, for in her he had,
next indeed to Christ Himself, all his trust and faith, and in
return therefore the -Virgin Mary set such a loving heart on
him, that already when he was still in the years of youth she
1 -
Act. SS. t. iv. Mali. p. 348. The Idaa of a Perfect Princcsse, p. 35. Paris, 1661.
 Childhood and Boyhood. 23

herself chose him to be the highest among teachers, which

resembleth after a fashion what is read of the holy David that
the Lord chose him to be king over Israel, and anointed him
by the hands of Samuel, even in his childhood, already when
he was but a little swain a-shepherding. That this comparison
is not set forth in heedless words will appear clearly from the
events themselves and the things which hereinafter follow." 3
In the Instructions for Parish Priests, composed by John
Myrc about the year 1450, god-parents are to teach their
god-children the Pater, Ave, and Creed.* The font at Bradley
in Lincolnshire has this
inscription :

9
Pater Boater, 3i)e g@ar(a, ann CrtcD, leteit pe cTjpIn pt eg iteBe,

thus bearing out the lesson inculcated by Myrc. In the unique

copy of the Manuale of Sarum use of 1506, printed by Pinson,
the following instruction is given in the Mundatio fontis God- :
"

faders and godinod s of this chylde we charge you that ye charge

the fader and the moder to kepe it from fycr and wat r and other -

perels to the age of vii. yere, and that ye lerne or se it be lerned

the Pr. Nr., Ave, and Crede," &c. 6
Hence after God, children were taught to love our Blessed
Ladye, and they ever loved her as their Sweet Mother, their
Ladye, and their Mediatrix and Advocate with her Divine Son.
Children having been taught the Hail Maryc, the next lesson
for them to learn was that of courtesy, in which alle vertues
"

arne closide;" so the Lytylle Childrenes Lytil Boke, dating

about the year 1480, says :

Lytylle childrene, here ye may lere

Moche curtesy that is wretyne here;
For clerkis that the vii. artez cunne,
Seyn that curtesy from hevyn come,
When Gabryelle oure lady grette
And Elizabeth with Mary mette.
All vertues arne closide yn curtesye
And alle vices yn vylonye;
7

3
Thomas Saga Erkibyships ; or, the Story of Archbishop Thomas, translated and
edited by Ein kr Magmisson, M.A., Sub-Librarian of University Library, Cambridge,
c. iv. pp. 17 19. Rolls Edit.
4
Early Eng. Text Soc., vol. i.
1868, p. 5.
5
Ibid. p. 73, note.
6
In the Stonyhurst Library. This is fully described in the printed catalogue of
the black-letter books, privately printed.
7
Babees Book, Early Eng. Text Soc., 1 868, p. 16.
24 First Fruits.

thus it brings home to the children s mind the Annunciation,

and the Angelical Salutation, and the great mystery of the

Incarnation. And these precepts of courtesy were not without
fruit.In the Eye Way to the Spytcll Hons, the wealthy London
tradesman thus addresses the door-keeper of the God s house :

"

God s blyssyng and our lady

"

Porter," sayd I,

Haue ye for spekyng so curteysly

To those poore folke and god his soule pardon
;

That for their sake made this foundacyon. 8

This wasin the days when England was Merrye England, and

when workhouses and the race of Bumbles were unknown.

In Catholic Ireland, at the present day, the usual salutation
given by those who speak the native language is Dia s Muire "

duit
"

God and Marye save you ;

and the reply,
"

God and
9
Marye and Patrick."
Almost contemporary with the Lytylle Childrencs Lytil
Boke was the Boke of Curtesay, printed by Caxton about 1477
78. Lytyl John is told to take hede and listen to what is
said to him :

In the morenynge whan ye vp rise,

To worshipe gode have in memorie
With crystes crosse loke ye blesse you thrise,
Your pater noster saye in deuoute wyse,
Ave Maria with the holy crede
10
Thenne alle the day the better shal ye spede.

Moreover it appears that the Office of our Blessed Ladye

was a favourite daily devotion with English children almost as
soon as they could read. Lytyl John is admonished

While that ye be aboute honestly

To drcsse your self and do on your arraye
With your felawe wel and tretably
Our lady maty us loke that ye saye
And obseruaunce vse ye every daye
this
With prime and ouris withouten drede
The blessed lady wil quyte you your mede. 11

It is evident that Chaucer, although he places the scene of

8
Ames Typographical Antiquities^ vol. iii. p. 124. Edit. Herbert, Loud. 1785.
u
Moran Essays on the Early 7; ish Church. Dublin, 1864, pp. 239.
s
10
Caxton s Boke of Curtesay, Early English Text Society, i68. Extra Series,
vol. iii.
p. 5.
J1
Ibid. p. 9.
 Childhood and Boyhood. 25

the Prioresse s tale in a great cite in

Asia, has left us the beauti
ful picture of an English school of his time :

Amongst these childre was a wedows son

A clergion, that vii. yere was of age
litel

That day by day to schole was his won

And also eke, where he sey the image
Of Christes mother, had he in vsage
As him was taught, to knele adoun and say
An Ave maria, as he goth by the way.
Thus hath this wedow, her litel child itaujt
Our blissed lady, Christes mother dere
To worship aye, and he foryate it naught.

This litel child his litel boke lerning

As he sate in schole at his primere
He Alma Redemptoris Mater herd sing
As children lered her antiphonere
And as he durst, he drew aye nere and nere,
And herkened to the wordes and the note
Till he the first verse couth all by rote.

He did not understand the Latin, and he asked his

companion,
Full oft time, vpon his knees
bare,
to expound this song, and tell him why it was in usage.

His felow which that elder was than he

Answcrd him thus, this song I haue herd say
Was made of our blessed lady fre
Her to salew, and eke her to prey
To ben our helpe and succour when we dey.
I can no more expound in this mater
I lerne song, I can but small grammer.

Then the dear innocent child, on

being told that it is sung
in reverence of our
Ladyc, determines to learn it, at the sacrifice
of his primer, and in the
consequent certainty of being beaten
thrice within an hour but the love of our Ladye absorbed
;

his fear of a is she the cordium

thrashing. Truly Raptrix ;
truly was the lad worthy of being an
/Engle !

And is this song imade in reuerence

Of Christes mother, said this innocent ?
Now certes I woll done my diligence
To conne it all er Christenmasse be went
Though that I for my
primer shall be shent
And should be beten thrise in an houre
woll 12
I it
conne, our lady to honoure.
12
Works. London, 1602, f. 68, b.
26 First Fruits.

Readers of Tom Brown will remember the sensation caused

at Rugby when Tom took the part of his young protcgt, George
Arthur, who had caused no little surprise by kneeling down at
his bedside tosay his night prayers, as his mother had taught
him do at home. 13 To a Catholic, whose morning and night
to

prayers form a part of his very existence, this appears incom

prehensible. Dean Stanley, however, records
That at the period when Dr. Arnold was elected head
"

master of Rugby (i.e. in 1827) the absence of systematic attempts

to give a more directly Christian character to what constituted
the education of the whole (non-Catholic) English gentry was
becoming more and more a scandal in the eyes of religious
men, who at the close of the century and last the beginning
of this and
Wilberforce, for
example, Bowdler had lifted up
their voices against it. complete reformation, A or a complete
destruction of the whole system, seemed to many persons
sooner or later inevitable. The difficulty, however, of making
the first step, where the alleged objection to alteration was its

impracticability, was not easily surmounted. The mere resistance

to change, which clings to old institutions, was in itself a consider
able obstacle, and in the case of some of the public schools, from
the nature of their constitution, in the first instance almost
insuperable and whether amongst those who were engaged in
;

the existing system, or those who were most vehemently

opposed to it, for opposite but obvious reasons, it must have
been extremely difficult to find a man who would attempt,
or if he attempted, carry through, any extensive improvement.
It was at this juncture that Dr. Arnold was elected head
"

master of a school which, whilst it presented a fair average

specimen of the public schools at that time, yet by its con
stitution imposed fewer shackles on its head, and offered a more

open field for alteration than was the case at least with Eton
14
or Winchester."

The great object which Dr. Arnold had was "the

hope of
15
making the school a place of really Christian education."

13
Part ii. ch. i.

14
Lifeand Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, D.D., late Head-master of Rugby
School, &c. By Arthur Tenrhyn Stanley, M.A. London, 1846. Ch. iii. p. 771
This chapter is of "

School Life at Rugby,"

15
Ibid. p. 48.
 Childhood and Boyhood. 27
The conclusion therefore from these words is that as Rugby
presented a
"

average specimen of the public (Protestant)

fair
schools" in
1827, the religious element was at a very low ebb
indeed. The words of the Prophet- King, Initium sapientics
timor Domini seem to have been forgotten. So much for the
results of the Reformation." The author, however, records
"

the good effects produced

by young Arthur, and concludes
with remarking, that before either Tom Brown or Arthur left
"

the school-house, there was no room in which it had not become

the regular custom. I trust; continues the author, is so "it

still, and that the old heathen state of things has gone out
for ever." 17 In that wish every Christian parent will
join. But
a question naturally presents itself whom was this "

:
By
heathen state of things introduced, or how, under
proper care,
could it ever have existed ?"

16
Psalm ex. 10.
17
My copy of Tom Brown
contains a letter to the author from an old
friend, who
signs himself
"

F. draw attention to the bullying, and whilst

D." Its object is to

admitting that the author has denounced this cowardly practice, F. D. observes
You hardly suggest that such things should be stopped, and do not
"

suggest any
means of putting an end to them." After saying
"
very much, ad he concludes rcm> :

I believe there is
only one complete remedy. It is not in
magisterial supervision,
nor in telling tales, nor in raising the tone of
public opinion among schoolboys, but
in the separation of boys of
different ages into different schools. There should be
at least three different classes of schools the first for from nine to twelve :
boys ; the
second for boys from twelve to fifteen the third for those above fifteen. And
; these
schools should be in different localities. There ought to be a certain amount of
supervision by the master at those times when there are special occasions for
bullying,
e.g. in the long winter evenings, and when the boys are
,
congregated together in the
bedrooms. Surely it cannot be an impossibility to keep order and protect the weak
at such times. Whatever evils might arise from supervision, they could
hardly
l)e greater than those produced by a system which divides the boys into
despots and
slaves." If the writer of this excellent letter were to a
pay visit to Stonyhurst, or any
other College of the Society of
Jesus, and study the working of the Constitutions of
St. Ignatius of
Loyola, he would be pleased to see that what he here recommends and
suggests has long ago been carried into practice. At Stonyhurst boys on their first
arrival must be under the
age of fourteen ; any above that age, like the late
Roger Tichborne, can only be received as "Gentlemen Philosophers," and they
have no intercourse with the boys. At Hodder
Place, which is within a mile of
Stonyhurst, about sixty or seventy of the younger lads are placed, whilst at
Stonyhurst
there is a complete separation between the
higher and lower classes, or Rhetoric,
Poetry, and Syntax, and the four lower schools, which have their
respective
recreation rooms and The strict martial order, decorum, and silence
playgrounds.
observed in the dormitories would
delight such an observer and so careful are the ;

provisions for insuring perfect tranquillity of repose, that if any

young gentle*
man has the evil habit of snoring, he is at once removed to a
separate dormitory
reserved for such offenders, where they
may snore in chorus to their hearts content.
28 First Fruits.

It is from the words of Dean Stanley, which I

evident,
have just quoted, that Eton and Winchester had fallen into
an irreligious state, and that they were so bound by shackles
as not to offer a very open field for alteration. Eton is, so
to say, the daughter of Winchester. Eton, founded in honour
of our Blessed Ladye, and King s College, Cambridge, were
both modelled upon the plan of Winchester, and the statutes
of William of Wykeham were transcribed without any material
alteration. The royal founder of these two colleges took the
greatest personal interest in his pious work. He did not employ
commissioners to report to him on the organization and working
of Wykeham s
College he judged and acted for himself.
;

During the building of the colleges, Henry the Sixth went to

Winchester five times, that, in the v/ords of the Protestant
he more nearly inspect, and personally
"

historian, might
examine, the laws, the spirit, the success, and good effects, of
an institution which he proposed to himself for a model." From
hence it appears that his imitation of Wykeham s plan is not to
be imputed to a casual thought of his own, or a partial recom
mendation from another, or an approbation founded only on a
common report or popular opinion, but that it was the result of
deliberate inquiry, of knowledge, and experience. 18

Henry the Sixth was careful to obtain the ratification by

Parliament of his various grants made from time to time by
letters patent. One
most extensive confirmations of
of the
property and privileges was made in 1445-6, and the College
caused it to be transcribed with great care, and paid the sum
of^i 6s. 8d. to a certain William Abell for adorning it with
an illumination. It is a most interesting example of English
art. The King is represented within the initial letter of his

name, on his knees at a prie-dicu, offering his charter to our

Blessed Ladyc, who is figured in her Assumption, being borne
up by five angels and crowned by the Most Holy Trinity. Over
the King is a label bearing Henricus Scxtns rex fiindator Jinjns
"

rcgalis collcgii" and behind his Majesty are the three estates of
the realm. The Commons who are below the Lords are saying,
Prient les Communes" to which the Lords spiritual and tem
"

poral add, Et nous le prions ausi"

"

Foremost among the

18
Louth, Life of William of Wykehaw, p. 180. Oxoli, 1777.
 Childhood and Boyhood. 29

Peers kneels Archbishop Stafford, and immediately behind him

Cardinals Beaufort and Kemp. 19
The present seal of Eton, which represents the Assumption
of our Blessed Ladyc, with the Royal arms beneath her, was

adopted in 1474, and apparently, says the learned historian of

Eton, on political grounds. 20 The original seal, of which two
examples known at
only are present, represents the Assumption
of our Blessed Ladyc, who is borne up by eight angels; the

Original Seal of Eton College.

arms of Eton are under her feet, and kneeling on the right is the

Royal Founder, Henry the Sixth. On cither side is an angel

supporting the arms of France and England. The arms granted
by Henry the Sixth to Eton College were, On a field, sable, "

three lily flowers, argent, intending that our newly founded

College, lasting for ages to come, whose perpetuity we wish to
be signified by the stability of the sable colour, shall bring forth

10
History of Eton College, 1440-1475, by II. C. Maxwell Lyte. London, 1875
I have not seen the original, and I have been unable to
(p. 52). decipher fully the
inscription before the King. It appears to read
"

Ad laudcin gloriain d . , .
tiiatu,"

and is evidently addressed to our Blessed Ladye.

20
Ibid. p. 72.
3O First Prints.

the brightest flowers, redolent of every kind of knowledge. . . .

To which also that we may impart something of Royal nobility,

which may declare the work and illustrious, we have
truly royal
resolved that portions of the Arms, which by Royal right belong
to us in the Kingdoms of France and England, be placed on the
chief of the shield, per pale, azure, with a flower of the French,
;

and gules with a leopard passant, or."

Mr. Maxwell Lyte remarks that the arms of Eton, which was
dedicated to our Ladye alone, only bear her lilies those of ;

King s College, Cambridge, dedicated to our Ladye and St.

22
Nicholas, bear two lilies and a mitre and pastoral staff. It

will be noticed that the Eton lily flowers are not the heraldric

flcurs-dc-lis. May they not be symbolical of the spotless vir

ginity of our Ladye before childbirth, in childbirth, and after

childbirth ?
The Reformation produced at Eton.
"

dire results It is

that there should ever

"

incredible," says the learned historian,

have been an entire absence of religious teaching at the greatest
school in Christian England yet such, from all accounts, must
;

23
have been the case at Eton until about fifty years ago." Let
us, therefore, hark back to the ages of faith, and see what
were the observances at Catholic Winchester and Catholic
Eton.
Devout our Ladye like William of Wykeham and
clients of
the good King Henry the Sixth would never have dreamed
of omitting such important duties as morning and night prayers
in the constitutions of their colleges, whereas the Commissioners
of Edward the Sixth required the Winchester scholars and "

children thenceforth to omit to sing or say Stella cccli or Salve

Rcgina or any suchlike untrue or superstitious anthem."

24
No
wonder, then, that the spirit of devotion soon died out, and
that as a natural result there ensued the state of things to
which Dean Stanley has alluded.
The Statutes, which were drawn up for Eton in 1444, pre
scribe that after Matins and Prime of the day, all the choristers

21
History of Eton College, pp. 52, 53.
22
Ibid, p. 54.
23
History of Eton College, p. 370.
24
Walcott, History of W. of Wykeham and his Colleges. Lond. 1852, p. 152
and p. 242.
 Childhood and Boyhood. 3 1

shall recite the Hours of our Ladye, according and

to the use
ordinal of Sarum. Equally the scholars, as soon as they had
arisen,and whilst making their beds, were to recite the Matins
of our Ladye, which they were to finish before going to school ;

and in the evening, on leaving school, they were to sing an

antiphon of our Ladye, with Ave Maria and a collect and ;

before going to supper they said the Vespers of our Ladye,

according to Sarum use. After Vespers, or at another time, as
the Provost might appoint, on every day excepting Maundy
Thursday and Good Friday, the choristers and scholars, in

surplices, were to say a Pater Noster before the crucifix, on their

knees, and then, rising, to sing the Salve before the image of our
Ladye. And at the end of the day, all the choristers and scholars
before going to bed were, at the first peal of the curfew bell, to
kneel down by their beds, those who are in each room, and
to say alternately the entire hymn, Salvator mundi Dominc,
with the versicle, Ciistodi nos Domine, and the psalm, Nunc
dimittis, the antiphon, Salva nos Domine vigilantes, with the
Kyrie cleison, Pater nostcr, Ave Maria, and Creed. And then
all were to recite a loud and intelligible voice the antiphon,
in
20
Stella cccli extirpavit^ with the usual versicle and prayer.
27
Moreover, they were to recite the whole Psalter of our Ladye.
At Winchester, either the Stella cceli or the Salve Rcgina
was always sung in the evening, and the Prior s charity boys
in like manner sang an evening antiphon of our Ladye, together
with the De Profundis^
would be well if this pious old English custom of singing
It

an antiphon of our Blessed Ladye, after night prayers, were

revived in all our schools and colleges. It already exists at
St. Cuthbert s College, Ushaw, and those who have had the
privilege of assisting at the College night prayers will not easily
forget the solemn and impressive manner of giving the Good
Night to our Ladye by singing the Maria Mater gratia
25
This antiphon is given in all the editions of the well-known Libellus Precnm.
26
Ancient Laivs of the Fifteenth Century for Kings College, Cambridge, andfor
the Public School of Eton College. Edit. Ileywood and Wright. London, 1850,
PP- 552555-
27
Ibid. p. 607.
28
S. pp. 242, 243.
29 Lest exception may be taken to the use of this term, I may as well mention
that it is an old English form.
32 First Fruits.

cannot be doubted that the Eton boys often went on little

It
30
pilgrimages to Our Ladye of Windsor, and other neighbouring
sanctuaries of our Ladye. Our Ladyc of Eton 31 is often men
tioned and it may safely be presumed that the Winchester
;

boys often went before her celebrated image

to greet our Ladye
where Wykeham was habitually
at the Pillar in the Cathedral,
accustomed to pray. Thus were the youths of England
trained up in the love of our Blessed Ladye, and the seed
thus early sown and nurtured, fructified in after life.

2. OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE.

Primus disccndi ardor nobilitas cst Magistri. Quid nobilius Dei Matrc ?
Quid splcudidius cd, quam Splendor clcgit ?

St. Ambrose. 33

The outfit for a young man going up to the University in

the ages of faith differed somewhat from that which is con
sidered necessary for a gentleman-commoner of Christ-Church
in the nineteenth century. When Mabel Rich sent her son
St. Edmund to Paris, the outfit which she gave him consisted
of a Bible and a hairshirt : and whilst he was at Oxford she
would, from time to time, forward supplies of linen, to which
she invariably added a hairshirt.
at Oxford that St. Edmund espoused himself to our
It was
Blessed Ladyc, as I have already mentioned and from the ;

words of the chronicler of Lanercrost, the image on the finger

of which he placed the ring, was the object of veneration of
the whole University 33 and his example greatly contributed
;

to increase devotion to the Glorious Mother of God. The image

30
s. pp. 246, 249.
31 Montcm was abolished
Ibid, p. 32. After some deliberation the in 1847.
Perhaps the most curious defence of Monteni," says Mr. Maxwell Lyte, "was that
"

set up by an intensely Protestant Fellow, who, having somehow got an idea that the
triennial procession to Salt Hill had taken the place of a pilgrimage to the (Blessed)

Virgin, desired that the ceremonies happily freed from superstition should be retained
as a symbol of the Reformation, and a standing protest against Popery
"

(History of
Eton College, p. 468).
32
De Virginians, Opp. t. iii. lib. ii. Paris, 1616,
33
S. p. 121.
 Oxford and Cambridge. 33

placed over the gate of New College, by William of Wykeham,

yet remains.
In the Statutes of Magdalen
College, founded by Bishop
Wayneflete, provision is made for our Ladye s antiphon on
Saturdays :

pleasure is that on every Saturday throughout the

"Our

year, and on all the eves of the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin

Gateway of New College, Oxford.

Marye, after Complin, all and each of the said Fellows and
Scholars and Ministers of our chapel, do devoutly perform
among themselves in the common hall by note, an antiphon of
the said Glorious Virgin."

Again, in regard of the third part of the Psalter of our

Ladye :

The President and each of the Fellows

"

are to hear one Mass

d
34 First Fruits.

every day, unless they are Priest-fellows who can say it, and
either at Mass, or at some other time, if prevented, they do say
in honour and remembrance of the Most Blessed Virgin Mother
of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all possible devotion on their
bended knees, fifty times over the Angelical Salutation together
with the Lord s Prayer, after every ten rehearsals of the
34
salutation aforesaid."

A similar statute in respect of the singing of an anthem of

our Ladye in hall, after Complin on Saturdays, was made by
35
Bishop Fox for Corpus Christi College.
Chaucer has left the description of a poure scoler s room at

Oxford :

His almagiste, and bokes gret and smale

On shelues couched at his beddes hedde

His presse icouered with a folding redde
And all aboue there lay a gay Sautrie,
On which he made on nights melodic
So sweteley, that all the chambre rong ;

30
And Angelas ad Virgincm he song.

Moreover, at Oxford the poorer students would beg from

door to door, singing the Salve Rcgina, and ask a pittance
for our Ladye s love, in whose sweet name nothing was ever
refused.
The celebrated Alexander of Hales had made a vow never
to refuse anything which it was power to grant, when
in his

asked of him in our Ladye s name. He was the master of

St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure, and it is quite

evident that the example of the devotion to our Ladye of his

English master was not lost upon St. Bonaventure. It was in
consequence of this vow that Alexander of Hales joined the
Order of St. Francis, of which he became such an ornament.
A
certain devout matron," says the author of the Collectanea
"

Anglo-Minorita, "coming to the knowledge of this vow, and

being much affected to the Carmelites and Dominicans, told
84
Statutes of Magdalen College, translated by G. R. M. Ward, Esq., M.A. Lond.
1840, pp. 97, 98.
35
Foundation Statutes of Bishop Fox for Corpus Christi College, Oxon. A,D. 1517,
now translated into English by G. M. Ward, Esq., M.A. Lond. 1843, c. xx. p. 93.
first
36 The
Miller s Tale. Opp. f. 12. Does this refer to the Hail Marye? When
Chaucer lived the devotion of the Angehis, in its present form, was unknown.
 Oxford and Cambridge. 35

some of the former the secret, bidding them to go to the

Doctor Halensis and ask him, for the glorious Virgin Marye s
sake, to enter into their Order, assuring them that the Doctor
would grant them their request. The White Friars are surprised
at the thing, considering the man, and the elevated station he
was but relying on the devotion and integrity of the matron
in,

they go to the Doctor, who received them with all the marks of
civility imaginable, and they discoursed with him on many
heads for a goodand then returned home, not once (God
while,
having appointed) so much as remembering the
otherwise
business they came thither for which the good lady took for
;

an affront, thinking that the omission was an effect of either

slight, or a misbelief of what she had suggested to them, so she
let the Dominicans into the secret, who soon went privately to

the Doctor, and first discoursing with him about indifferent

matters that they might at last usher in their address in a more
courtly manner when, behold, in comes a Friar Minor with his
;

wallet on his shoulder, having been begging bread about the

town for his brethrenand being now come hither also to beg
;

a little bread, and having fixed his eyes upon the Doctor as he
sat talking with the Dominicans, he simply addressed himself
to him in these plain terms Reverend Doctor, you are a
"

viz.,

very great scholar, and the fame of your virtue is spread far and
near you see the poor Order of Friars Minors has as yet but
;

few learned men in it, and no Doctors. If you were in it many

persons would improve by your means, and therefore I beseech
you, for the love of God and the Blessed Virgin Marye, that you
will take upon you the habit of our Order, for the good of your
soul, and for the honour of our Institute." The Dominicans
were amazed to see themselves thus prevented, and the Doctor
himself at first seemed to be in a consternation, but at last
recovering himself, and being inwardly touched with the grace
of the Holy Ghost, and taking the words of the simple Brother
to be a call from God, he made this reply, Go your ways, "

Brother, for I will follow you presently and comply with your
37
request."

The statutes of King s College, Cambridge, founded by

Henry the Sixth in the year 1443, arc equally precise in regard
of devotions to our Blessed Ladye. Chapter xli. is Of the :
"

37
Collectanea An^lo-ftlinotila. London, 1726, p. 53.
36 First Fruits.

prayers to be said by the Provost, Fellows, and Scholars of the

College."

"We wish that all the choristers present in the College,

shall, after Matins and Prime, divided on either side of the
choir, arrayed in surplices, recite alternately and without note,
and in a distinct and clear voice the Matins and other Hours
of the Blessed Virgin and also at the hour of Vespers, at or
;

about the first sound of the bell, they shall recite among them
selves in a similar manner, without note, and in a distinct and
clear voice the Vespers and Complin of the Blessed Virgin, and
let them finish before the bell for the Vespers of the day. We
also ordain that on each and every day of the year in the
evening, at a fitting time, as shall appear most convenient to
the Provost, or, in his absence, to the Vice-Provost, all the
choristers present of our Royal College, together with the
38
choir-master, when the bell for this service rings, excepting
on Maunday Thursday and Good Friday, when the bell must
not be tolled, shall come to the church, and therein with lighted
candles, and arrayed in surplices, shall sing before the Image
of the Blessed Virgin, solemnly, and in the best manner they
know, an antiphon of our Blessed Ladye with the verse Ave
Maria and the prayer Mentis ct prccibns. . . .

Moreover, we ordain that all and each of the Fellows and

"

Scholars aforesaid shall, if they can conveniently, every day

hear one Mass, unless they are priests and that every day, at ;

proper appointed times, they shall recite the Hours of the

Blessed Virgin, and that they shall make a special com
39
memoration at Vespers and at Matins of the most holy con
40
fessor Nicholas, &c."

In schools and colleges the same grace before and after

meals, as is now said with us, was recited, but with the addition
of an antiphon of our Ladye. Thus, after Benedicanius Domino ;
Deo Gratias; was said Ave Rcgina ccelorum. Mater Regis Ange-
lorum. O Maria
Flos Virginum, vclut Rosa, velut Lilium,funde
preces ad filium pro salute fidelimn. A ve Maria. Meritis et
prccibns suce pics Matris benedicat nos Filius Dei PairIs. Amen
The shorter grace after meals was as follows : Pro tali convivio

38
Informator in Cantit.
8U Matins comprise both Matins and Lauds.
40
Ancient Laws, &c., p. 107.
 Oxford and Cambridge. 37
benedicamus Domino. Deo gratias. Mater ora
filium nt post
hoc exilium nobis donet Ave Maria. Meritis
gaudium sine fine.
41
etprecibus, &c., as above. According to the Sarum Manuale,
an antiphon of our Ladye,
usually that of the season, was added
at pleasure after 42
grace.

Pendant in the Divinity School,

Oxford.

41
Early English Meals and Manners. Edited by F. J. Furnevall, M.A. Lond
1868, pp. 367, 368.
42
Ed. Rothomagi, 1509, f. Ixii. Stonyhurst Library
 CHAPTER THE FOURTH.
Universal Homage.

Holde up cure yong kyng, Ave benigna,

And sende us peas in oure londe, Ave Regina
Mater, nunc bryht bcc thy bcamys,
Moodcr of mercy, save bothe rcamys.
From a Balade on the coronation of King Henry VI., Nov. 6, 1429.*

THE most substantial proofs of the love which our Catholic

monarchs bore to the Blissful Mother of God are the monas
teries which they founded in her honour for the services which ;

the Religious Orders rendered in the propagation of devotion

to our Blessed Ladye in England were very great. The
CJironologia Bcnedictino- Mariana of Bucclin, the Annals of
St. Evesham, and the other great Benedictine houses
Alban s,

contain many interesting details in this regard. Foremost

amongst the English Benedictines may be named St. Augustine,
Venerable Bede, Abbot Bennet Biscop, St. Dunstan, St.Ecgwine,
St. Oswald of Worcester, and Alcwine, the preceptor of Charle

magne, all of whom were celebrated clients of our Ladye.

William of Malmesbury describing the edifying death of a
young monk of Ensham says
"

it is well known that the monks

2
ofEnsham are devout to our by Ladye and are beloved her."

The White Friars or Carmelites propagated throughout Europe

the devotion of the Scapular which had been revealed to
St. Simon Stock at Newenham
3
and were called her brothers. 4
;

The Grey Friars or sons of St. Francis were ever conspicuous

1
Political Poems and songs relating to English History from the beginning of
the reign of Edward III. to that ofRichard III. Edited by T. Wright, M.A.,
F.S.A., vol. ii.
p. 146. Rolls Edit.
2
De gestis Pontificnw Anglonu/i, lib. iv. p. 314. Rolls Edit.
3
S. pp. 105, 243.
4
S. p. 14.
 Kings. 39

for their devotion to our Ladye and her Immaculate Con

ception. The Black Friars,as the Friars Preachers or Do
minicans were called, spread far and wide the Psalter of our
5
Ladye. St. Gilbert of Sempringham in the rules which he drew
up Order desired that unless there was any urgent
for his
Order were
necessity for the contrary, all the churches of the
to be founded in the memory of our Ladye. Thus the Reli
gious Orders were central schools of devotion to our Blessed
Ladye and thus our kings by founding monasteries, proved
;

their love for her. So many royal foundations are recorded

in the second portion of this work that it is needless to dilate
in this place upon that favourite expression of zeal in the
service of the Queen of Heaven. From the time of the con
version England down to the sad period of the great
of

apostasy, there was scarcely one king who did not leave some
proof of his love for our Blessed Ladye, either by building a
church in her honour, or by erecting and endowing a monastery,
or by large donations to her sanctuaries, or by going on pil
grimage to some celebrated spot where her power had been
made A
few instances of the personal devotion of
manifest.

English kings may be adduced.

^Ethelbald the son and successor of ^Ethelberht, who was
converted by St. Augustine, built a chapel of our Ladye at
6
Canterbury, in which he was buried. King Arthur went to
Glastonbury that he might die under the protection our Ladye.
Ine built the "

Silver Chapel," as it was called, of our Ladye

at Glastonbury. St. Eadward the Martyr instituted pilgrimages
to our Ladye of Abingdon. Cnut was singularly devout to our
Ladye, and profuse in his donations to her great sanctuary
of Chartres. Moreover, he seems to have loved to celebrate the
festivals of our Ladye in some religious house such at least :

I think is the construction which his journey to Ely presupposes.

St. Eadward the Confessor used no other oath than Per

Sanctam Mariam. Edward the Third returning from France
after the capture of Calais about the feast of St. Michael, was
overtaken by a storm at sea, and addressed himself to our
Ladye in these words Sancta Maria, Domina mea, quid est
:
"

quod tenendo versus Franciam felici aura potior, mare placatur,

5
Dugdalc, Monasticon Anglic, t. vi. p. 1. under the heading of Sempringham.
6
S. p. 6.
4o Universal Homage.

et cuncta prospera mihi succedunt in redeundo vero versus :

7
Angliam mihi eveniunt infortunia et nimis adversa." Henry
the Fifth, amongst other proofs of his devotion to our Blessed
a
Ladye, caused her life to be written by Dan John Lydgate,
monk of Bury.
The crown worn by the Kings of England, our Ladye s
Dower, bore her image with that of her Divine Son. In the
of the in the time of Henry the
Inventory English Regalia
Eighth, it is mentioned that in the Kinge s crowne there were
flowers de luce, three of which were sett w an image of
l
five

Christe, &c. one sett w l an image of our Ladye and her childe,
;

a balace a balass ruby), a poyntid dyamont, three pies

(i.e.

(i.e. pearls), and twoo colletts w oute stones and the other l
;

flower de luce sett w Seynt George.

8
On l
August 15, 1649,
when the plate remaining within the upper jewel-house of the
Tower was delivered over to the trustees of Parliament for the
sale of the King s goods, the King s crown was valued, and in
the valuation this item occurs : In a flower de luce having
e
picture of y (Blessed) Virgin Marye, two sapphires valued
e
y
at 65 /. ; eight rubies ballaces valued at 26/.
I have pointed out under the heading of
Bucelin, as

Glastonbury, mistook the act of King Eadgar, with which he

invested the abbey by laying his sceptre on the altar, for a
solemn consecration on his part of England to our Blessed
10
Ladye, nevertheless, remarkable, that in the British
It is,

Museum a copy of Eadgar s foundation charter of New-

there is

minster, A.D. 966, with an illumination which represents the

King with our Blessed Ladye standing at his left side in the act
of crowning him. 11 Now this is precisely the type which appears
three years later on a gold coin of the Emperor John the First,
Zimisces, A.D. 969-975, although in this instance the busts only
are represented. Our Ladye is on the left of the Emperor, and

7
Th. Walsingham, Hist. Anglicana, t. ii. p. 271. Rolls Edit.
8
Ancient Kalendars and Inventories of the Exchequer, Edit. Palgrave. London
1836, vol. ii.
p. 259.
9
Antiquarian Repertory, vol. iii. p. 84.
10
S. p. 46. The words of Bucelin are
Edgarus lituum proprium sive sceptrunt
:

in Ara Virginis deponit, et Regnnm quasi suum tanks Regince offcrt et

Beatissima:
consecrat {Chron. Benedictino- Mariana, p. 90).
11
Cott. MS. Vespasian, A. vii. This has been reproduced and printed by the
Paleographical Society.
 Knights and Orders of Knighthood. 41
12
in the act of crowning him. The Empire had already been
consecrated to our Ladye by Leo the Sixth who died in 911.
Four English coins bear the Annunciation of our Blessed
Ladye, but they belong to the Anglo-Gallic series, and are
usually called Salutes. Three different types in gold were struck
13
off by Henry the Fifth, and one in silver by Henry the Sixth.

2. KNIGHTS AND ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD.

Zabulo u tcrribilis
Acies caslrorum,
Portus et Refugium
Sis christianorum.
Little Office of the Immaculate Conception.

Holy Church applies to our Blessed Ladye those words of

ls
the Book of Proverbs
Clypcus cst omnibus spcrantibus in se.
:

St. John Damascene, Hugh of St. Victor, Richard of St. Law

rence, Bartholomew of Pisa, and others, call her our Shield,

Clypeus nosier; George of Nicomedia, Scutum eorum qui summa
rerum potiuntur ; v and the Emperor Theodore Lascaris, Ensis
noster, and also, Scutum insuperabilc, spiritualium hostium
phalanges rcpellens ab eis qui cum fide et affectu earn canunt.

Juliana Berners, Lady Abbess of St. Albans, says in her

curious treatise on Heraldry :

And bycause ye cros is the mooste worthi signe emong al

"

signys in armys, at ye cros I woll begynne, in the wich thys

nobull and mighty Prynce Kyng Arthure hadde grete truste so
that he left his armys that he bore of iij. dragonys and over that
a nother sheelde of iij. crownys, and toke to his armys a crosse
of sylver in a felde of verte, and on the right syde an Ymage of
19
owre Blessid Ladye, hir soile in hir arme."

12
Sabatier, Description Generate des Monnaies Byzantines, &c. Paris, 1862,
vol. ii.
plate xlvii. n. 17.
13
Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain. London, 1840, vol. ii. p. 400.
They are figured in vol. iii., supplement part ii. plate xiii. nn. lo, II, 13, 14.
14
Zabulns is another form of Diabotus ; see Du Cange.
18
xxx. 5.
16
Marracci, Polyanthea Mariana, sub voc.
17
Oral 3 de Prccsentatione B. V.M.: quoted by MarraCci, sub voc.
18
In canon, ad SS. Deipar : quoted by Marracci, sub vocib.
10
Boke of St, Albans, reprint, iSii, a, i, Cf. what is said in the S. pp. 102, 304.
42 Universal Homage.

Froissart relates that at the battle of Poictiers, Sir John

Chandos and the Lord Jehan de Cleremont, bore embroidered
on their surcoats, unknown to each other, an image of our
Blessed Ladye, and that the accidental discovery was the cause
of a personal quarrel.
"... it so fortuned that the Lorde John Chandos rode the

same day coostyng the French Host, and in like maner the Lord
of Clermont one of the frenche Marshalles had ryden forthe, and
aviewed the state of the Englysshe hooste, and as these two
knyghtesretourned towardes their hoostes they mette togyder,eche
of them bare one maner of devyce, a blewe Ladye embraudred in
a sofie
beame, above on theyr apayrell. Then the Lorde Clere
mont sayd Chandos howe long have ye taken on you to bere
:

my devyce ? Nay ye bere myne, sayd Chandos, for it is as

well myne as yours. I deny that/ sayd Cleremont, but and

were it nat for the truse thys day betwene us, I shulde make it
good on you incontynent that ye have no right to bere my
devyce. A sir, ye shal fynde me to morrowe
sayd Chandos,
redy to defend you and to prove by feate of armes that it is as
"
20
well myne as yours.
And now
I venture to offer a conjecture as to the origin of

surcoats, which, so far as I know, has hitherto escaped the notice

of any writers on Heraldry. It cannot, however, be expected that
anything which savours of devotion to our Ladye will find favour
in the eyes of Protestant Heralds. Writing many years ago to a
friend, now no who
held high office in the College of
more,
Arms, to inquire whether the figure of our Ladye occurred in any
English shields, I received for answer, that the device was too
puerile (sic) to be mixed up with the noble science of Heraldry !

Heralds seem to be generally agreed that surcoats were

introduced towards the end of the reign of King John, and the
earliest instance in England is the figure of the Earl of Salis
bury, who died in 1226. Now at Chartres there is preserved a
most valuable and well authenticated relic of our Ladye, which,
from ignorance of Eastern manners, had generally been taken
to be the chemise of our Ladye. The Chapter adopted it for
their armorial bearings. Early in the thirteenth century, it
became the custom to make linen tunics, and to lay them on
the chasse which contained the relic. These were called Cliemi-
20
Froissart, Lord Berner s translation, reprint. London, 1812, vol. i, p. 197.
 Knights and Orders of Knighthood. 43

settes de Notre Dame de C/tartres, and their manufacture formed

a considerable portion of the trade of the city. All the pilgrims
to our Ladye of Chartres bought them. Warriors wore them
when they went a shield, as it were,
to battle as a sure defence
with which knights deemed themselves invulnerable to such a
point, that in a duel, if one of the combatants wore a tunic of
our Ladye, he was obliged to inform his adversary, otherwise
the fight would have been unequal. An old MS. relates how
the knight without fear and without reproach came to Chartres
se fairc enclicmiser dc la chemise de Notre Dame. Women had
a great devotion to this relic from the belief that our Ladye had
worn it before the Birth of our Lord hence arose the custom ;

that the Chapter of Chartres, as soon as it was informed of the

pregnancy either of the Queen or the Dauphiness would cause

a tunic to be made of white taffetas, edged with gold lace,
and placed on the cJiasse for nine days, on each of which Mass
was celebrated in the crypt for the happy delivery, and then it
was conveyed to the Queen or the Princess by four of the
Chapter.
21
Now may not this custom of knights wearing tunics
of our Ladye have been the origin of surcoats ?
Froissart also relates an amusing anecdote of Sir John
Norwich, who was besieged in Angouleme, and reduced to
great extremities. He trusted to our Ladye to help him out
of his difficulties. On the eve of the Purification he succeeded
in making a truce with the Duke of Normandy for the feast day
only, out of reverence for our Ladye. The next day he and his
companions armed themselves, and packed up what they had,
and rode forth. The French army was put in motion, but Sir
Gentlemen, in faith of the truce we may
"

John riding up said :

ride wherever we please." This was communicated to the Duke,

who replied Let them go in God s name whatsoever way they
:
"

choose, for we cannot force them to stay I will keep the pro ;

mise I made them." Sir John and his men rode through the
whole French army, and took the way rejoicingly to Aiguillon. 22
We must remember that it is a Frenchman who tells the story.
At the battle of Azincourt the English army carried five

21
N. Dame de France, on Histoire dn Culte de la S. Vierge en France depuis
Vorigine du C/iristianisme j/tsyii a nos jours, par M. lc Cure dc Saint-Sulpice
(M. Hamon). Paris, 1861, vol. i.
p. 208.
83
C. cxix. pp. 141, 142.
44 Universal Homage.

colours into action, bearing respectively, the Most Holy Trinity,

St. Eadward, St. George, the Royal Arms, and our Blessed

Ladye the latter were borne

;
in attendance upon the King,
by his Majesty s command :

Avaunt baner without lettyng

Sant Joyrg before eny of myne,
The banere of the Trenyte, that is Haven Kyng,
And Sente Edward his baner at thys tyd.
Our Ladye," he sayd, that is Haven Quene,
" "

23
Myn oune baner with her schall abyde."
An poem on the
old siege of Rouen
describes the prepara
tions made by the Duke of Exeter for the triumphant entry of
the King into that city after its fall :

& riche baneris he up sette

Vpon the porte seint Hillare

A baner of the Trynyte.
& at the port Kaux he sette evene
A baner of the quene of heven. 24
I may mention here that the standard 25 of Joan d Arc bore
the Holy Names, 31^0U0, Sl^aria ; and her banner the Annun
26
ciation.
The ancient war-cry of the English Kings was Montjoye
Notre Dame, with the name of St. George added. 27
I know of no families in England which bear the image of
our Blessed Ladye on their shields nevertheless she appears ;

on the arms of the ancient Catholic sees of Salisbury and

Lincoln in England, and of Tuam in Ireland, which are
now borne by the Protestant dignitaries who occupy them.
Instances, however, occur in foreign heraldry.
The image of our Blessed Ladye often appears on swords
and breastplates. I have more than one example of swords
one of the fifteenth century with our Ladye and her Divine
Son on one side, and St. George on the other; and the
23
Lydgate, Battle of Azinconrt. Edit. Nicolas, p. 322.
24
Arcluzologia, vol. xxii. p. 382.
25
The difference between a standard
and a banner is this the banner was square :

and bore the arms of its owner or some other device ; the standard was
long and
narrow, and split at the end. In the upper part by the staff was the cross of
St. George ; the remainder
being charged with the motto, crest, and badge, but never
with the armorial bearings.
26
Jeanne d Arc. Par H. Wallon. Paris, Firmin Didot. 62. 1876, p.
87 Curiosities of Heraldry. By M. A. Lower, p. 154,
 Knights and Orders of Knighthood. 45
28
Meyrick collection has several breast-plates thus adorned.
The sword with which Richard the First of England was
girtfor his dukedom of Normandy by the Archbishop of
Rouen had been laid on the altar of our Lad ye, and hallowed,
20
prior to the investiture.
In the ages of faith challenges to perform feats of arms were
often given in honour of our Ladye. In 1390, three French
knights, Jean le Meingre de Boucicaut, Renaud de Roye, and
the lord of Sempy proposed a tournament at St. Inglevert
(near Boulogne), and to hold their own against all the knights
of England, Hainault, or Lorraine, who might present them
selves. Sir John de Boucicaut had caused it to be proclaimed
in many Christian
countries, in England, Spain, Aragon,
Germany, and elsewhere. After vanquishing the best
Italy,
lances of England, they took no glory to themselves, but came
to offer their chargers and their trappings to our Ladye of
30
Boulogne. After the tournament between Lord Scales and
the Bastard of Burgundy, sundry other challenges were made.
Messire Philip Braton, first esquire to the Count de Charleroys,
sent one to Louys de Brutallis, a Gascon esquire, worded thus :

En lonneur et en la reverence de mon creature JJin Christ, et

de la gloriouse Vierge Marie sa mier et
ts madame Sainte Anne
ct dc mon sz Seintc George, &c. 31

In 1854, when the plans for the invasion of the Crimea by

the allied armies of Great Britain and France had been arranged,
Marshal de Saint Arnaud published an Ordre General to the
French troops, in which, it may be noticed that the word gloire
does not appear. 32 In curious contrast to the above order,
Lord Raglan who commanded the British forces, issued a
memorandum requesting Mr. Commissary-General Fielder to
"

take steps to insure that the troops shall be provided with a

ration of porter for the next few days." 33 But, in earlier ages,
a chronicler has recorded of the Battle of Crecy, that because
it was fought on a Saturday, the English army went into
28
Armour at Goodrich Court, vol. i.
plates 41, 59, 70.
29
Roger of Wendover, Flor. Hist. Edit. Coxe, vol. iii. p. z.
30
For the several authorities see Haignere, Hist, de Notre Dame de Boulogne,
Edit. 1864, p. 101.
31
Excerpta Historica, p. 214.
32
No. ioo, dated Varna, August 25, 1854, quoted by Russell, p. 146.
33
The War. By W. H. Russell. London, 1855, p. 147.
 46 Universal Homage.

action fasting in honour of our Ladye. 34 After this evidence

who will say that English soldiers cannot fight without their
breakfast !

Our Ladye s name is not yet forgotten on the battle-field.

Describing the terrible scene on Mount Inkermann on the

evening of November 5, 1854, after the defeat of the Russians,

Kinglakc says of the poor wounded soldiers :

"

Some found
means to cry out for the hospital, some for water, some only
for pity. Men appealed in their agonies to a common faith,
and invoked the name of her who must be dear so they
35
fondly imagined -to all the churches of Christ.
On October 27, 1396, Charles the Sixth King of France,
and Richard the Second King of England met at a spot not
far from Guines, a few miles from Calais. After shaking hands
they proceeded to the place fixed for the interview, where it \vas
decreed that there should be built on the spot, at the joint
expense of the two sovereigns, a chapel to be called of our Ladyc
of Peace, in perpetual memory of their interview. And this being
30
arranged, they shook hands and departed, each to his tent.
Froissart says that this chapel scroit nominee Nostrc Dame de la
Grace. Je nc say sc riens il en fut fait? 1 few days later A
the marriage of Richard the Second with the Princess Isabella
daughter of Charles the Sixth was celebrated at Calais.
Eleven foreign and two British Orders of Chivalry were
founded in honour of our Blessed Ladye prior to the sixteenth
century.
Our Blessed Ladye is the chief patroness of the Most
Noble Order of the Garter.
The historian of the Order, Ashmole, says of Edward the
Third, "that this religious and pious king being singularly affected
to the Blessed Virgin Marye, though she was accounted the
General Mediatrix and Protectress to all men and
upon all
occasions, yet did he more peculiarly entitle her to the Patronage
of this most noble Order.
"And no less was King Edward the Fourth in a special
34
Chron. Calf. Le Baker de Swinbroke,
p. 166.
35
Invasion of the Crimea. London, 1875, vol. v. p. 440.
36 "

Ut construeretur in eodem loco, ambonim snmpMits,

jina capella, qua vocaretur
Nostrcc Domina de Pace
1

(Johis de Trokelowe et Hcnr. de Blaneford, monachor.

S. Albani, Chronica et Annales, p. 191. Rolls Edit).
37
Liv. iv. c. 78, p. 247. Edit. Sauvage, I, yon,
1560,
 Knights and Orders of Knighthood. 47
manner devoted towards the same Blessed Virgin, insomuch
as he thought it necessary that some additional ceremonies
within the Order should be observed by himself and the
Knights and Companions to her peculiar honour and there :

upon ordained that on her five solemnities, the Knights

Companions should annually (as it was wont and accustomed
at the yearly feast of
George) wear the peculiar habit of
St.
the Order, as long as Divine Service was
celebrating (unless they
had sufficient cause of excuse), bearing on the right shoulder a
golden figure of the Blessed Virgin Marye, and further that they
should go in the same manner and habit
upon all the Sundays
throughout the year, and lastly, that on the same days, for
ever, they say five Pater Nosters and five Ave Marias."**
St. George of Cappadocia is the third
patron of the Order.
This was the ancient form of Investiture :

To the laud and honour of Almighty God, His Immaculate

"

Mother, and St. George, the holy martyr, tie or gird your leg
with this most noble Garter, wearing it to the increase of
your
honour, and in token and remembrance of this most Noble
Order ; remembering that you being admonished and en
couraged in all just Battles and Wars, which only shall you
take in hand, both strongly to fight, valiantly to stand, and
30
honourably to have victory."
Equally is the Order of the Thistle of Scotland tinder the
patronage of our Blessed Ladye. The Statutes say :

The most ancient and most noble Order of the Thistle was
"

to consist of the Sovereign and twelve

Knights Brethren, in
allusion to our Blessed Saviour, and His Twelve" and
Apostles,
that under the protection of our Blessed
Ladye and His Holy
Apostle St. Andrew, Patron of Scotland, the said Order being
instituted for the defence of the Christian 40
religion, &c.
Thus it
appears how the name and love of our Blessed
Ladye were intimately associated with the chivalry of England.
Whether Sir Reginald de Argentein, whose epitaph I have
given, was a Knight of the Frati Gaudenti, or of some foreign
38
Ashmole, p. i8; He also remarks that the Statutes were so judiciously
:

devised that they afterwards became a precedent to other Orders

particularly those
of the Golden Fleece, and of St. Michael
Monseigneur (Ibut. p. 189).
39
Ibid. p. 300.
40
Statutes of the Order of the Thistle. London, W. Pickering, 1828, 4to, not
paginated.
48 Universal Homage.

Order of our Ladye, or whether he had called himself our

But
Ladye s Knight out of his love for her, I know not.
Lydgate calls St. George our Ladye s Knight. Was this

because he is Patron of our Ladye s Dower.

41
Helpe, Sent George, oure Lady Knyjt.

This is the epitaph of Sir Reginald.

Reignauld de Argentein ci gist

Qui cest
chappellfeire fist :
Fitt Chevalier Sainct Marie,
Chescuni pardon pour lalme prie.

Regnald de Argentyne here is laid

That caused this chappell to be made :

He was a Knight of Seynt Marie the Virgin

42
Therefor prey pardon for his sin.

The Grand Priors of the Knights Templars all took an

43
oath to defend the perpetual virginity of our Blessed Ladye.

3. SHIPMEN.

Alma Redemptoris Mater qua pervia cceli

Porta manes, et Stella Marts, succurre cadenti.
From the Antiphon of the Church. 44

O sterre of sterres with thy stremys clere

Sterre of the sea, to shipmen light and guide.

Mede unto mariners that haue sailed farre.

Chaucer, A Baladc of our Ladle.**

Dear to sailors was the Virgin Mother of God, the Brilliant

Ocean Star, 46 whom they invoked as their Guide, their Anchor, 47
their Port of refuge, their Haven in shipwreck.
48
To her did
they raise their cry in their hour of need, when tossed on
41
Battle of Azincourt, p. 300. So in the Battle of Otterburn, the English "Sent

George the bryght, our ladyes knyght, To name they were full fayne lines 189, 190. ;"

See Percy s Reliques, and Ritson, Ancient Songs and Ballads, p. 89, Lond. 1877.
41
Ancient Funerall Monuments within the United Monarchie of Great Britain
and Ireland. London, 1631, p. 545.
43
S. p. 90.
44 Romano
In Breviario temp. Adventus.
45 fol. b. Edit. cit. 1602.
Opp. 329
46 Marracci gives more than one hundred instances of this title being applied to
our Ladye by the Fathers (Polyanthcea Mariana, sub voce).
47
St. John Damascene and many others give this title to our Ladye (Ibid.).
48
Portus Naufragantium quoted sixty-eight times by Marracci (Ibid.).
 Skipmen. 49

the angry billow, and in danger of being wrecked, although the

impious Erasmus, in the person of Adolphus, laughs at sailors
for calling on our Ladye. 49 Not unfrequently would they make
a vow of pilgrimage, in thanksgiving, to one of her great sanc
tuaries ;
and many monasteries owe their foundation to a vow
made Ships sailing past our Ladye of Bradstow, at
at sea.

Broadstairs, used to salute her by striking their top-sails, or by

50
clewing up the top-sail sheets.
The Issue Roll of Richard the Second for the year 1397
mentions the offering of a silver ship to our Ladye of Aques by
John Mayhew, Master of the King s ship, called La Trinite dela
Tour, in fulfilment of a vow made during a storm.
51

In 1506, the English pilgrims, who had started for the

Holy Land with Sir Richard Guylforde were in great danger off
the island of and greate pyte it was to se what trybula-
Mylo ;
"

cion and maryners hadde that nyght, and also the

fere the

pylgrymes, whiche rose out of our lodgings, and drewe vs

together, and deuoutly and ferefully sange Salve Regina and
other Antymes with versicles and collettis appropred for such
effecte and we all yaue money and vowed a pylgrymage
;

in generall to our blessed Lady de Myraculis of Venyse, besides

other perticules vowes that many pylgrymes made of theyr
singuler deuocons. And in lykewyse the maryners made a
pylgrymage at their awnc costes and charge." 62
A captain in the Royal Navy, Master Arthur, being in great
danger of losing his ship, invoked our Ladye of Walsingham,
and made a vow if she would preserve him, not to eat flesh

40In Colloq. de Naufragio. Opp. torn. i. col. 713. Lugd. Bat. 1703. On
Wednesday, the nth of July, 1441, Thomas Bekynton, secretary to Henry the Sixth,
was becalmed at sea on his way to Bordeaux. In mare contingebat le calm, ct circiter
horam Vllnm in sero per ccstimationem navcm scquebatur piscis vocatus le Shark, qui
,

quidem piscis pcraitiebatur bis aim uno harpingyren et rccessit ; quibus vero percussioni-
bus non obstantibus, incessanler navetn scquebatur ; et tune magistcr navis cum dicto
ferro latera ejus penetravit. Demum pro vento habendo dictus Dominus metis secretarius
devoto el humili corde promisit et flexit argentum beatissitiue et gloriosissima: Virgini
Marhc de Etona ; et post votum sic factum in honore dicta Virginis, cum ctcteris in
navi quos incitabat facere ut ipse fecerit ; quo facto cantaventnt antiphonale Sancta
Maria. Qua _ftnita, ventus vertit se in aquilonem, et ibi flavit magis continue (Official
correspondence of Thomas Bekynton, vol. ii. Appendix, p. 184. Rolls Edit.).
80
used the word whereas refers
"

S. p. 4 : I inadvertently dipping," "dipping"

to the colours only.

61
Pell Records, Issue Roll, Easter, 21 Ric. II. p. 267.
52
The Pylgrymage of Syr R. Guylforde, Knyght, p. 64, Camden Soc. 1851.
e
50 Universal Homage.

nor fowl until he had been on a pilgrimage to her sanctuary.

The Lord High Admiral of England, Sir Edward Howard, gave
him leave of absence for the purpose of fulfilling his vow ; and
in writing an account of it to the King recommends him highly
to his Majesty, hoping that he will give him comfortable words
for his bravery. The letter is dated April 17, i5i3- 53
On taking up the Royal Navy List, it appears that the
various British ships of war are named either after distinguished
personages or mythological celebrities of pagan history, or some
animal, or bird, or beast. But in Catholic days most of the
ships of the Royal Navy were named either after the Most
Holy Trinity or our Blessed Ladye or a saint. Thus out of the
twenty ships in the reign of Henry the Seventh four bore the
name of Marye. 54 Nor was the name of our Ladye confined to
the Royal Navy. In the year 1512-13, amongst the victualler
ships was the Marye WhalsyngJiam, Captain Yelverton ; 55 and in
1513, amongst the hired ships for the Navy were the Maria
di Loreta, of eight hundred tons, and the Marye of WalsingJiam,
of one hundred and twenty tons, and ninety-seven men. 56 In
I
39 I by will dated September 26, Robert de Ryllyngton of
>

Scarborough desires those two ships called Saiutmarycboite and

the Katherinc to be sold, and the proceeds to be
expended
for the health of our souls, &c. 57

During the London Season of 1853, I met the late Lord

Bishop of Southwark on the Greenwich steamer. He was
going in his usual unostentatious manner to visit two old
sailors in the Greenwich Hospital, and he told the following me
story of them. I regret I did not take a note of their full
names, as I have now forgotten them. At Trafalgar, when
the English fleet was going into action, these two Catholic
bluejackets were serving at the same gun, to which eleven
hands were told off. Whilst they were waiting for orders to
open fire, one of them sung out to the other Bill, let s kneel :
"

down and say a Hail Marye; we shall do our duty none

the worse for it."
"Aye, aye," replied Bill, s do so and "let
;"

forthwith, amidst the jeers and scoffs of their

messmates, these
two gallant tars knelt down, and greeted our Ladye with
53 54
S. p. 187. Battle of Azincourt, Edit. Nicolas,
Append, p. 22.
65
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. i.
pp. 421, 551.
56
Ibid. p. 972.
57
Test. Ebor. vol. i.
p. 157. Saintmaryeboite means Saint Marye s boat.
 Shipmen. 5 1

the Angelical Salutation. Twice during the action was that

gun manned, and each time every soul was sent into eternity
with the exception of our Ladye s two clients, who came out
unscathed.
The contrast at the present time between the names of

English and French vessels is very great, as may be seen

daily in Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, Havre, and other ports

on the northern coast of France, frequented by British collier
and carrier steamers, and coasting brigs and top-sail schooners,
which are usually named after some heathen god or local
such as the Neptune, the Ariadne, or the Thomas and
celebrity,
Susan, the Betsy-Jane, and the like. Now these French towns
have large fishing fleets, and amongst the Boulogne fishing-boats
there are very few which do not bear our Ladye of Boulogne
on their mast-vanes, and the names, often repeated, of Notre
Dame, Notre Dame de Grace, Notre Dame de Miracles, Notre
Dame de Boulogne, La Toute Belle sans Tache, L Immaculcc Concep
tion, L Etoilc de la
Mer, L Etoile
La Sainte Famille,
du Matin,
St. Joseph. And
as the Boulogncse fishermen love to go on

pilgrimage to our Ladye of Boulogne ere setting sail for the

58
deep-sea fishery, so did our English crews in the ages of faith
visitsome favourite sanctuary in our Ladye s Dower and ;

amongst the offerings to our Ladye of Ardenburg at Great

Yarmouth in the year 1484, are recorded some herrings, which
50
were sold for i6s. 4<r/.

On the coasts of England, as now in Catholic countries, 60

there were many sea-side sanctuaries of our Ladye, the especial
object of devotion to sailors, as e.g., Our Ladye of Ardenburg,
01
at GreatYarmouth, Our Ladye in the Rock, at Dover, 02 Our
03
Ladye of Bradstow, Our Ladye of Scarborough, 64 and Our
65
Ladye of Grace, at Southampton.
68 II Les marins qui se disposent a partir pour la peche aux
Mars, 1876.
maquereaux sur la cote d Irlande, se rendcnt par centaines en pelerinage a Notre
Dame de Boulogne {Anmiaire de Boulogne-sur-Mer, pour 1876, p. 125. See S. p. 276).
09 S. p. 257.
60
Cf. Notice Historiquc sur la Chapelle de N. D. des Dunes a Dunkerque. Par
M. Raymond de Bertrand. Dunkerque, 1853.
61
S. p. 257.
62
S. pp. 28, 29.
83
S. p. 4.
64
S. p. 137.
65
S. p. 140.
52 Universal Homage.

Lately, whilst was crossing the Channel, a Rev. Vincentian

I

Father related to me what

follows about a fishing station on the
coast of Kerry, in Ireland. These fishermen are all Catholics.
After a violent storm, when all their vessels had returned in
safety, one of the men was asked how it was that they never
seemed to be afraid of these gales, and that they always rode
them out snugly and unharmed. We are never afraid, Father,"
"

said he. This is our secret. Whenever it begins to blow

"

great guns, and the sea gets up, we just put a man in the bows
to look out for waves, and whenever he sees a big one towering

up, he lifts his hand and makes the sign of the Cross over
it, and the wave always leaves us in peace."
6G

Our Ladye, to whom shipmen sing Ave Marls Stella" says

"

the homily against the period of idolatry. 67 This, therefore, was

the favourite hymn of English sailors, while the Boulogne fisher
man turns towards our Ladye of Boulogne, and sings in the
fulness of his heart :

Sur la mer en furie

Luttant centre la mort,
Le matelot te prie ;
Tu le conduis au port.
Salut, Vierge benie,
Dame du Boulonnais,
Qui t honore et te prie
Ne perira jamais.
Du haut de ta nacelle,
Sur nous jette les yeux,
Ta famille t
appelle,
Marie, entends nos voeux :

Nos peres t ont pride

Et tu les as benis.
Patronne bien-aime e
Exauce encore leurs fils.

And this is the common hymn of the French matelot:

Je mets ma confiance,
Vierge, en votre secoursj
Serves-mot de defense,
Prenez soins de mes jours
Et qnand ma derniere heure
Viendrafinir ma sort,
Obtenez que je meurs
De la plus sainte mort,
68
Related to me, July 2, 1877. Part iii. Edit. Oxon. 1844.
p. 203.
 Serjeants-at-Law. 53

From antecedents, I am fully justified in

its historical

considering Boulogne-sur-Mer as intimately connected with the

subject of this book, and I have accordingly included it in my
list of Sanctuaries.

4. SERJEANTS-AT-LAW.
A
visit to the chapel of our Ladye of Pewe at Westminster

formed one of the ceremonies of the creation of Serjeants-at-law,

which occupied several days. 68 They are fully set out by
Dugdale in his Origines Juridicales.

5. AUTHORS AND PRINTERS.

Omni die
Die Maria
Mea, laudes, anima.
Ejus festa,
Ejus gesta,
Cole devotissima.
Hymn of the Anglo-Saxons (not of St. Casimir) to our Blessed Laclye.

Pone scribentinm tot esse millia

quot habent nemora frondes et folia,
quot cceli sidera et guttas maria,
indigne Virginis scribent prceconia.
Walter Map or Mapes. 69

Ihaue none English conuenient and digne

Mine hearts Hele Ladie thee with to honour.
Chaucer. 7 *

Oceleve, the disciple of Chaucer, gives his master the title

of Servaunt of Maiden Marie.
As thou wel knowest, O Blissid Virgyne,
With louyng hert and hye deuocion
In thyne honour he wroot ful many a lyne ;

O now thine help and thy promocion

To God thi Son make amocion
How he thi seruaunt was, Mayden Marie,
And let his loue floure and fructifie. 71
68
S. pp. 238, 239.
fl *>

Latin Poems, Camden Soc. pp. 191, 192. 1841. Cf. Peter Comestor, who
gives the same ideas in all but the same words ; Cf. also, Lilja or Lilium, an Icelandic
poem honour of our Ladye, by Eystein Asgrimsson, c. A.D. 1350. Copenhagen,
in

1858, stanzas 93, 94, 95.An excellent translation has been made by Eirikr Magnusson,
M.A., and published in 1870 by Williams and Norgate, Henrietta Street, Covent
Garden.
70 A
Balade of our Ladie, Opp. edit. cit. f. 329 b.
71
Works, MS. ffarl. 4866, f.
91.
54 Universal Homage.

There are several passages in Chaucer s poems, which are

eagerly seized by the enemies of the faith of Christ, 72 who

strive to judge of the state of religion in England in the four
teenth century by what he says, and by what appears in the
visions of Piers Ploughman, by John Longland. Perhaps this
is the reason why these authors are so popular with certain
classes.
But no less an authority than Mr. Thomas Wright, M.A.,
has shown that the Ploughman s tale, which is the most objection
73
able, is not the composition of Chaucer. Of his sentiments
about our Blessed Ladye it is impossible for any of his readers
to entertain a doubt.
Old authors were fond of addressing our Blessed Ladye, and
of invoking her aid and assistance.

Ne scribam vanum, due pia Virgo manum

was a common aspiration in former days. 74
These lines appear at the end of the poems of Sedulius :

Finem carmen habet, nee lauri serta require ;

Tu studii merces esfo, Maria, met } 5

The author or transcriber of a book for the health of the

soul would ask an Ave from the reader. Thus the Ancren
Riwle concludes Ase oft ase 3e readeS out o ]?isse boc
:
"

greteS }?e lefSi mid one Ave Marie, for him J?et maked J?eos
riwle, and for him })et hire wrot and swonc her abuten. Inouh
meSful ich am ]?et bidde so lutel
"
"

As often as ye read
anything book greet the Ladye with an Ave Maria for
in this
him who made this Rule, and for him who wrote it and took
pains about it. Moderate enough am I, who ask so 7C
little."

The author of the Saga of St. Thomas of Canterbury exclaims

in his prologue :

May Jesus Christ now grant by the intercession of His

Sweet Mother and Maiden Marye sinnar ssetu moj?ur ok
meyjar Marie and by the merits of Holy Thomas, that this
72
See English Gilds, note I. p. Ixxxvii. Early Eng. Text Soc. 1870,
e.g. appended
to Dr. Brentano s Essay on the Hist,
of Gilds.
73
Political Poems and Songs relating to English
History from the beginning of the
reign of Edward III. to that of Richard III. vol. ii. pp. 304348. Rolls Edit.
74
Gantier. Prieres a la S. Vierge d aprts les
Manuscripts, p. 504. Paris, 1873.
75
Patrolog. Lat. Edit. Migne. t. xix. col. 764.
76
Pp. 430. 431.
 Authors and Printers. 55

work so begin, continue and end, that it be to the praise and

glory of Him, but for spiritual joy to those who hearken thereto,
and be worthy of the intercession of Blessed Thomas." 77
Chaucer thus invokes our Ladye :

My conning is to weake, O blisfull Quene,

For to declare thy high worthinesse,
That I ne may the weight sustene
But as a child of twelve moneth old or lesse
That can vnnethes ane word expresse
Right so fare I, and therfore I you pray
Gideth 78
my song, that I shall of you say.

In another poem he says :

And thou that art floure of virgins all

Of whom that Bernard list so well to write. 79

And in his "Balade in commendation of our Ladye" he

implores her to assist him in the singing of her praises.
80

Herodotus named the nine books of his History after the

Muses Robert Fabian, citizen of London, inscribed the seven
;

books of his Chronicles to the Seven Joys of our Blessed Ladye.

He commences by addressing our Blessed Ladye, and invoking
her assistance :

Moste Blyssyd Ladye, comforte to such as calle

To the for helpe in eche necessyte
And what thou aydest may in no wyse apale
But to ye beste is formyd in ylke degre
Wherfore Good Ladye I praie it maie please the
At my begynnynge, my penne so to lede
That by thyne aid my werke may have goode spede. 81

He concludes the first book in these words :

And in the way of a thanke to be gyven to our most blessyd

Aduocat and helper of al wretchys that to her lyste to call,
I mean that moste blessyd virgyne our Lady saynt Mary moder
of criste. For that of her grace hath fortheryd this werke
hytherto. And 9
Impetre of her ye grace and ayde of her
for to
moste mercyfull contyneance to accomplisshe this werke begon

77 Th6mas Saga Erkibyskups, p. 5. Rolls Edit.

78
The Prioresses Prologue, Opp. ed. cit. f. 68 b.
79 The Second Nonnes Prologue, Opp. ed. cit. ff. 54, 54 b.
80
Opp. ff. 329, 330 b.
81
The Neio Chronicles of England and France. Reprint from Pynson s edit, of
1516. Lond. l8jl in principio.
56 Universal Homage.

as before isshewed, vnder supporte of her moste bounteous

grace ;
here wyll I wt humble mynde salute her with the firste
ioye of the VII loyes whiche begynne
82
Gaude Florc Virginali, &c.

It has been well said that "

if the ancient religious poetry of

England should ever find an editor, readers who are accustomed
to suppose that intelligible English dates from the time of
Spenser, would be amazed at the power and pathos possessed
by earlier writers. When we examine such poetical fragments
as are yetpreserved, the wonder perhaps ceases that they
should have found small favour from modern editors. For the
most part they are devoted to celebrate the glories of the
Blessed Virgin, or the Mysteries of the Passion. The first
subject has, of course, no chance of indulgence from a Protestant
public, and the second is hardly more popular, when treated
precisely in the same spirit as it is presented to us in the prayers
of St. Bridget, or the devout productions of ancient Catholic art.
To Catholics, however, it is a joy and a solace to look back into
past centuries, and remember that these were days when our
poets drank of a purer fount than that of Castaly and made it ;

their pride to celebrate in their verse, not Dian, nor Proserpine,

but the Immaculate Queen of Heaven." 83 During the ten years
that have elapsed since the work from which this passage is
taken was written, the Early English Text Society have repro
duced many old Catholic poems and documents of the highest
interest.
Our Anglo-Saxon poets found in the praises of our Blessed
Ladye an inexhaustible theme of song. In their metrical
compositions they employed both Latin and their own language.
Amongst the Latin effusions may be named the verses of St.
Ealdhelm, and the smaller poems of Alcwine. 84
Out of the vast array of poems in honour and in praise
of our Ladye, I have selected a few by
way of illustra
tion.
The Collection of Anglo-Saxon poems, known as the Codex

82
The New Chronicles of England and France, p. 19.
83
Christian Schools and Scholars. Lend. 1867, vol. ii.
p. 271.
84
Cf. Opp. t. ii. col. 724. Edit. Migne.
 Authors and Printers. 57

Exoniensis^ contains much in praise of our Ladye. The poet

addresses her
O Delight of women,
Throughout the host of glory
Damsel most noble
Over all earth s region. 80

He then commemorates her spotless virginity

Now thou the Glory of Majesty

In thy bosom barest,
and was not injured
87
thy pure virginity :

and calls her

. . . the Blessed Maiden
ever of triumph full,
88
Holy Marye.

poem on the Nativity of our Lord the poet

In another
apostrophizes our Blessed Ladye

O thou Marye with speech endow d

all

of this mid-world name and say,

the purest men over earth,
woman upon earth blithe of mood,
of those who have been that thou art Bride
throughout all ages : of theMost Excellent
how thee with right Lord of Heaven :

After referring to Isaias, the poet concludes

At least this beseech we with bold words

dwellers upon earth, that He let us not
that thou the Comfort any longer,
make known to people, in this vale of death,
thine own Son, error obey,
that we may afterwards but that He us convey
with one accord into His Father s Kingdom,
all exult. where we sorrowless,
Now we before that Child may after

gaze in our thoughts : dwell in glory

intercede for us now with the Lord of Hosts. 89

M This MS. was one of the many given to the Library of his Cathedral by
Leofric, the Bishop of Exeter, under whom the see was transferred to that city
first

from Crediton, of which he was the last bishop, in 1046. It is a moderate sized folio,
in a fair and rather fine hand of the tenth century.
86
Ibid. p. 5.
87
Ibid. p. 6.
88
Ibid. p. 8.
89
Ibid. p. 21.
58 Universal Homage.

One peculiar feature of Anglo-Saxon poetry was the occa

sional intermingling of Latin with the vernacular and an ;

90
instance is given where five Greek terms are also interwoven.
A "

Song to our Ladye

"

of the thirteenth century shows a

similar combination of Latin with the English.

Of all that is so fayr and brijt,

velut marts stella.

Brijter than the day is K3t

parens et puella.
Ic crie to the, thou se to me.
Leuedy preye thy sone for me,
tarn pia
That ic mote come to the
maria.

Of kare conseil thou ert best

Felixfecundata,
Of alle wery thou ert rest
mater honorata.
Bi-sek him wi3 milde mod,
That for ous alle sad is blod,
in cruce
That we moten komen til him
in luce.

Alle this world was for-lore

eua peccatrice
Tyl our lord was y-bore
de te genitrice.

With aue it went

a-way,
Thuster nyth and comet the day
salutis
The welle springet hut of the
irirtutis.

Leuedi flour of alle thing

rosa sine spina
Thu bere ihesu heuene King
gratia divina.
Of thu berst the pris
alle
Leuedi quene of paradys
electa

Mayde milde, Moder

es effecta.

Wei he wot he is thy sone

venire quern portasti
He wyl nout werne the thi bone
parvnm quern lactasti.
uo
Sharon Turner, Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii.
p. 201,
 Authors and Printers. 59

So hende and so god he his

He havet brout ous to blis
superni
That have? hi-dut the foule put

These are a few lines of the address to our Ladye which

Chaucer places in the mouth of the prioresse
Mother maiden O maiden & mother free
O bush unbrent, brennyng in Moyses sight,
That rauishedest downe fro the deite
Through thin hublesse the gost yt in the light
Of whose vertue, whe in thine hart pight
Conceived was the father s sapience
Helpe me to tell it in thy presence. 92

Several Latin hymns to our Blessed Ladye were composed

in England.
TheAve Maris Stella is generally attributed to St. Bernard, 93
who died in the year 1153; but it must be ascribed to an
earlier author, since it was known to the Anglo-Saxons, for it

appears amongst the hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, with

an interlinear Anglo-Saxon gloss, in an Hymnale dating
94
probably a little later than the Norman invasion, published in
1851, by the Surtees Society.
I an Anglo-Saxon the authorship of the well-
claim for
known hymn Omni die die Maries, which is generally ascribed to
St. Casimir, and which is usually called the hymn of St. Casimir.
Fez has already noticed that the Chartreuse of Jumieges
possessed a codex of a date anterior to St. Casimir, which
contained this hymn ;
others attribute the authorship to Conrad,
Prior of the House of the Throne of our Ladye at Jumieges. 95
But in the British Museum there is a late eleventh century
Psalter, written by an Anglo-Saxon scribe,somewhere, as it
would seem, in the Province of York, shortly after the reign
of St. Edward the Confessor. This is the opinion of the late
Dr. Rock, to whom it formerly belonged, and it is fully con-

81
Egtrton MSS. 613, f. 2. Early Eng. Text Soc. vol. 49, 1872, pp. 194, 195,
92 The Prioresses Prologue. Opp. ed. cit. f. 68.
93
Greg. Valentianus, Hymnodia SS. Patrum. Genuce, 1660, p. 369.
94
Vol. xxiii. pp. 76, 77 and Pref. p. viii. Bonsi and Signoretti attribute it to
Venantius Fortunatus. See Reithmeier, Flores Patriim Latinonun et Hymni ecclesi-
astici. Scaphusice, 1853, p. 374.
95
Thesaiirns Anecdotum. 1721, vol. i. f. xvi. prsef.
60 Universal Homage.

firmed by Mr. Bond, the learned keeper of our national MSS.

In this Psalter the hymn is given after the Psalm Domine ne in
furore tuo; and it is in the same handwriting, consequently it
must have been known in England some centuries before St.

Casimir flourished. Certain however it is that St. Casimir used

to recite it and a copy of it was found in his tomb,
daily ;

when it was opened for reparations in 1604. His body was

97
incorrupt, and the hymn was lying under his right hand. The
Bollandists give it and it will be seen
;
that the version in the
York Psalter runs word for word with it.

Hymn in York Psalter, c. A.D. 1070. Hymn found in St. Casimir s tomb. 1604.

Omni die die Mariae Omni die die Marias

Mea laudes anima Mea laudes anima
Ejus festa, ejus gesta Ejus gesta
festa, ejus
Cole splendidissima. Cole splendidissima. 98
Contemplate et mirare Contemplate et mirare
Ejus celsitudinem, Ejus celsitudinem,
Die felicem genitricem, Die felicem Genitricem, 99
Die beatam Virginem. &c. Die beatam Virginem. &c.

St. Simon Stock composed the Flos Carmeli and to him is

also attributed the authorship of the hymn veMundi Medicinal A
Some of the Latin poems of Robert Grostete were translated
into English by William de Shoreham, Vicar of Sutton, county
Kent, in the time of Edward II. Of one of these translations I
give four stanzas, i, 2, 3, and 14.

Mary, mayde, mylde and fre,

Chambre of the Trinitd,
One wyle lest to me
As ich the grete wyth songe ;

Tha3 my fet onclene be,

My mes thou onder-fonge.

96 Additional MS. 39 b.
21927, See also Chttrch of our Fathers, vol. iii. p. 5.
f.

The hymn as given in this MS.

ends with the line, Clemens audi tiie landi quos instanter
aspicis, and it is immediately followed by the next psalm. The whole codex is in the
same handwriting, consequently there are no grounds for
supposing that the hymn
might have been inserted at a later date.
97 Act SS. t. i. Martii, p. 341.
98
This word is generally omitted in the printed versions, and replaced by
devotissima.
99 Act SS. t. i. Mart. p. 355. Edit. Palme".
100
S. p. 106.
191
Menologirim Carmelitanum. Bononiae, 1628, p. 292.
 Authors and Printers. 61

Thou art quene of paradys,

Of hevene, of erthe, of al that hys ;

Thou bere thane kynge of blys,

Wythoute senne and sore ;

Thou hast y-ryjt that was a-mys

Y-wonne that was y-lore.

Thou ert the colvere of Noe

That broute the braunche of olyve-tre,
In token that pays scholde be
By-tuexte God and manne ;
Swete levedy, help thou me,
When ich schal wende hanne.

Have, levedy, thys lytel songe,

That out of senfol herte spronge,
Ajens the feend thou make me stronge,
And y3t me thy wyssynge ;

And thaj ich habbe y-do the wrange,

Thou graunte me amendynge. 102

This beautiful hymn to our Blessed Ladye is exceedingly

valuable and instructive, and with the spelling modernized it
might most advantageously take a place in the Catholic hymn-
books, and be taught to our school children, who are already
familiar with the Omni die die Maries, or, "

Daily daily
sing to Marye." Andhope this latter one will hereafter
I

be described by its
proper name, hymn of the Anglo-
"A

Saxons to our Blessed Ladye," and no longer as the hymn of

St. Casimir.
1 have already exceededmy limits but the poetry and ;

hymnology of Ireland claim to be mentioned.

Towards the close of the sixth century St. Cuchumneus, a
contemporary of Adamnan, composed a Latin hymn of great
length in honour of our Blessed Ladye, which soon became
celebrated, and had a place assigned to it amongst the hymns of
the Irish Church.

Cantemus in omni die

Concinnantes varie,
Conclamantes Deo dignum
Hymnum Sanctas Mariae
Bis per chorum hie et inde
Collaudamus Mariam,

2
The Religious Poems of William de Shoreham, Vicar of Chart, Sutton. Edited
by Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A. Percy Society, n. Ixxx. November, 1849,
62 Authors and Printers.

Ut vox pulset omnem aurem

Per laudem vicariam. 103

Prior, however, to St. Cuchumneus flourished Ccelius Sedulius,

whose reputation was widely spread abroad. In his Carmen
Paschale he dwells on the special dignities and privileges of the
Blessed Mother of God.

Et velut espinis mollis rosa surgit acutis,

Nil quod laedat habens, matremque obscurat honore ;

Sic Evae de stirpe sacra veniente Maria

Virginis antique ut facinus nova virgo piarct ;

Ut quoniam natura prior vitiata jacebat

Sub ditione necis, Christo nascente, renasci
Possit homo, et veteris maculam deponere carnis.

Salve Sancta Parens, enixa puerpera Regem,

104
Qui cadum terramque tenet per saecula, cujus
Numen et aeterno complectens omnia gyro,
Imperium sine fine manet quas ventre beato
;

Gaudia matris habens cum virginitatis honore,

Nee primam similem visa es, nee habere sequentem.
105
Sola sine exemplo placuisti fcemina Christo.

There is an old Irish hymn to our Blessed Ladye entitled,

"

The
Protecting Corselet of Marye," which is attributed to the
eleventh century. It consists of twenty-four stanzas, of which I

give the two first.

Direct me how to praise thee,

Though I am not a Master of Poetry.

thou of the angelic countenance without fault,

Thou hast given the milk of thy breast to save me.

1 offer myself under thy protection,

O lovingMother of the Only Son,
And under thy protecting shield I place my body,
100
My heart, my will, and my understanding.

Several of the poems which I have just cited were evidently

intended to be sung. St. Ealdhelm, Bishop of the West Saxons,

103
Given by the Right Rev. Dr. Moran, Lord Bishop of Ossory. Essays on the
Early Irish C/iurc/i, Dublin, 1864, pp. 25, 27. Mone has also printed it, and has
given several variations from various MSS. Hymni Latini Mcdii SEvi, Friburgi
t. xi. n.
Brisgovice, 1854, 572, pp. 383386.
104
This
the earliest occurrence of this couplet
is now so well known, amd incor
porated with the Introit of Our Ladye s Mass.
105
Lib ii. col. 595-596, 599-600, lines 28*34, 63-69. Patrol. Lai. t. xix. Edit.
Migne,
108
Irish Ecclesiastical Record, vol. vi. n. Ixvii. April, 18701
 Authors and Printers. 63

who died in 709, speaks of rhymed verse, and even his prose
praises of our Ladye, seem as if meant to rhyme. Here is a
specimen, which I have divided into lines.

Beata Maria Acfelix vernacula.

Virgo perpetna; Sanctarum socrm animarum
Hortus conclusus
Fans sigtiatns
Virgula radicis
....
Supernorum regina civium.

Obsidem sceculi,
Gerulafloris Monarcham mundi;
Aurora salts Rectorem poli j
Nurus patris Redemptorem soli;
Genitrixet Germana Archangelo prcemonstrante
ilii^ simulque sponsa. Paradcto adtimbrante^ 1

And Girald de Barri, surnamed Cambrensis from the country

of his birth, who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth
century, says that the English and Welsh are so subtle in their
songs, rhymes, and set speeches, that they produce in their
mother tongue ornaments of wonderful and exquisite invention,
in their words and in their sentences. 108 This shows the perfec
tion which the Anglo-Saxon gleemen and the Cambrian bards
had already attained prior to the times of Girald.
107
De landibtts Virginitatis.
08
In cantilcnis rythmicis et dutamine. In addition to the fifteen contemporary
witnesses who have left evidence that Thomas
Kempis wasa the author of the
Imitation of Christ ; another, Adrian de But, describes him
as having written
it metrice, as Dr. Hirsch has demonstrated so clearly. This important witness
was unknown until recently. The chronicle of Adrian de But commences with
the year 1431, and ends with 1488, the year of his death. Under the year 1480
it
says, Hoc anno frater Thomas de Kempis, de Monte Sancte Agnetis, professor
ordinis regnlarinm canoniconun, multos scriptis sitis tcdificat ; hie vitani sanctcc

Lidivigis descripsit el quoddam volt/men metrice super tilled: Qui scquitur me,

(Chroniqnes relatives a fHistoire de la Belgiqne sons la Domination des Dues de

Bourgogne, publiees par M. le Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, Membre de la
Commission Royale d Histoire. of the quaintest
Bruxelles, 1870, t. i.
p. 547). One
conceits in verse ever written about our Blessed Ladye was by the celebrated Eric
Puteanus, or Du Puy, a disciple of Justus Lipsius. He took from the poems of
Father B. Bahusius, or Bauhius, S.J., the following line :

Tot tibi stint Dotes, Virgo, qtiot sidera calo,

and produced 1,022 variations of it without changing its measure. About this time
there seem to have been so many stars calculated. These lines were elegantly printed
in small folio. Subsequently Father James Bernouille, S.J., showed this verse to be
capable of 40, 320 variations, but without preserving its measure, and Father Prestet,
S.J. they were both celebrated mathematicians that it admitted of 3,776 variations
still preserving the measure. See Erici Puteani Thaumata in Bern. Bahusii, S.J,
Proteum Parthenicum unius libri versum unius versi librum sive formis MXXII.
variatum. Antv. ex Off. Plantin, 1617. I have a copy of this rare book. See also
De Backer, Ecrwains de la Comp>
de Jesus, 2d Edit, sub nomm,
64 Universal Homage.

St. hymn is, I believe, yet sung in the north of

Godric s

England, but do not know the exact form in which it is now

I

repeated. Few, however, I ween, of those who sing it are aware

to
that their favourite song is believed to have been taught
St. Godric by our Blessed Ladye herself. These arc the words
of it as recorded by Roger of Wendover.

Seinte Maria clane vergine,

Moder Jesu Christ Nazarene,
Onfo, schild, help thin Go(d)rich,
Onfang, bring heali widh the in Codes rich.

Seinte Marie, Christes hour,

Meidenes clenhed, Moderes flour
Delivere mine sennen, regne in min mod,
109
Bring me to blisse wit thi selfe God.

Oneof the most popular carols of the present day is that of

the Seven Good Joys of Our Blessed Ladye-," which for a very
"

the printers of
long time past has been annually reprinted by
carol-sheets throughout the entire length and breadth of the
land. Those printed at Newcastle extend them from seven to
twelve joys. 110
It is a pity that the street music of the present day is not
under the wholesome regulation of which Alban Butler speaks,
I have had in possession an original MS. ordinance
my
"

saying,
of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury (who fell at Northampton in
he
1460), in which, by an act which is called perpetual,
commands that every musician who shall play on any instru
ment within the limits of his county of Salop, shall pay a small
sum to a certain chapel of our Ladye, under pain of forfeiting
111
their instruments, with other ordinances of a like nature."

John Bedell, or Bydell, appears to have sold books in the

year 1535, if not before; probably he was an apprentice to

Wynkyn de Worde. He first kept his shop at the sign of Our

Ladye of Pitie, next to Fleet Bridge. 112 John Redman in Pater

noster Row also adopted the same sign.
113

100 Edit. Coxe.

Flares Historiarum> t. xi. p. 348. London, 1841.
Songs of the Nativity: being Christmas Carols, ancient and modern. Edited
110

by W. H. Husk. London, J. Camclen Hotten, S.A. pp. 87 90.

111
Lives of the Saints. Dublin, 1870, vol. x. p. 284, note.
111
Ames, Typographical Antiquities. Edited by Herbert. London, 1785, vol. i,
p. 482.
113
Cf. History of Sign Boards from the earliest Times to tJie present day. By
Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotteni London, 1876, p. 272. ." .... . i,.-
 Innlwlders. 65

Pynson s mark or device was the, monogram of our Blessed

90
Ladye.
In an old edition of the Vitas Patrum, translated by Caxton,
was written,
"

Of your charitie praye," &c.

Moder of merci shyld him from thorribul fynd,

And bryng hym to lyff eternall that neuyr hath ynd.
91

The York Manuale printedby Wynkyn de Worde in the

year 1509 begins, Ad laudcm Dei et honorem, tuamque non
immerito,flos Virgo Maria, ecce manuale" &c.

6. INNHOLDERS.
It is easy to trace old Catholic signs in many of the modern
names of inns and hotels. Thus there is the Angel, which is

of frequent occurrence and the Salutation, which is represented

;

by two persons in the act of shaking hands yet both these ;

signs are the remains of the Catholic representation of the

Annunciation. The Virgin is to be found in several places,
and was intended for the Blessed Virgin, in the ages of Faith.
"

Newe says Stow, was a gueste Inne, the sign whereof

Inne,"
"

was the picture of our Ladye, and thereupon it was called our
92
Ladye s Inne."

90
Fosbroke, Encyclopedia of Antiquities. London, 1843, p. 501.
91 Annals of the Parisian Press, p. 92.
Parr-Gresswell,
92
History of Sign Boards, p. 272.
 PART THE SECOND.
Forms of Homage.

CHAPTER THE FIRST.

Shrines.

I. CHURCHES. ORGANS AND BELLS. WAX IMAGES.

And King David said to the assembly. . The work is great, for a
. .

house prepared not for man but for God. And I with all my ability have
is

prepared the expenses for the house of my God. Goldfor vessels ofgold, and
silver for vessels of silver, brass for things of brass, iron for things of iron,
woodfor things of wood; and onyx stones, and stones like alabaster, and of
divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble of Paros in
great abundance.
I Paral. xxix. I, 2.

CHURCHES.
THE Church of Sancta Maria Trans Tiberim, or Santa Maria
in Trastevere, is the earliest one in Rome which was dedicated
to God in honour of the Blessed Virgin Marye. It was built

on the spot where formerly stood the Taberna Meritoria, and

consecrated by St. Calixtus the First in the year 224.*
Glastonbury is the most ancient and venerable sanctuary of
our Ladye in England. According to tradition it was originally
a little oratory built of wreathed twigs, and erected by St. Joseph
of Arimathea, 2 who also carved an image of our Ladye. 8 Two
centuries later it was rebuilt of stone; and in the year 530,
St. David added a Ladye Chapel. 4 In 708 Ine of the West
1
Baronius, ad ann. 224, n. 5. For history of this church, and many authorities
cited, see Gaume, Les Trots Rome. Paris, 1864, vol. ii. pp. 201 207.
2
S. p. 43.
3
S. p. 280.
4
S. p. 44-
 Churches. 67

Saxons reconstructed the abbey and the church, and also built
the Silver Chapel as it was called from its richness. 5
" "

There is a tradition that the old church at Glastonbury was

consecrated by our Lord Himself in honour of His Blessed
Mother and this is mentioned in the charter of Ine, and also
;

in that of 6
Henry the Second, so that this pious belief has existed
for many centuries. It is unnecessary for me to recapitulate
the various evidences
in regard of the early foundation of

Glastonbury the arguments on both sides are set out in the

:

Dublin Revieiv? It is admitted that Glastonbury was the

earliest Christian Church in England, and that it was dedicated
to God in honour of His Blessed Mother consequently devo ;

tion to our Blessed Ladye is coeval with the introduction of

Christianity into England. Therefore, also, the foundation of
Glastonbury in England in honour of our Ladye is anterior to

that of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome.

In 607, in the eleventh year after he had been sent into
England by St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine built a church
in honour of our Blessed Ladye, on a
spot called Cratundene,
in the island of Ely. 8
A
few years later, King ^Ethelwald, whose father, King
^Ethelberht had been converted by St. Augustine, built the
church of the Holy Mother of God at Canterbury, in which he
was buried in 640. It was consecrated by St. Mellitus. 9 This
church was subsequently called the Sacrarium or Vestiarium of
our Ladye. 10
St. Bennet Biscop built a church in honour of our Ladye in
11
St. Peter s Monastery, Weremouth.
5
Gaume,
p. 46.
6
A
portion of this charter I have already quoted (S. pp. 47, 48); but after
enumerating the kings who were benefactors, it says : Qnomm privilegia et chartas
fed diligenter inquiri et coram me prasentari et legi, confirmata sunt prccdicta ecclesice,
qua: olim a quibusdam Mater Sanctorum dicta est, ab aliis Tumuhts Sanctorum, quam
ab ipsis discipulis Domini ccdificatam, et ab ipso Domino dedicatam primo jitisse, vener-
abilis habet antiquorum auctoritas (Wilkins, Concilia, torn. i. p. 489).
7
New Series, n. xxi. pp. 85, seq.
8
Anglia Sacra, torn. i. p. 594. Acta SS. torn. vi. Maii, ad diem 26, p. 371.
Edit. Palme. Giles puts the death of St. Augustine in 605, but the Bollandists prove
that it took place in 608.
9
Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. vi. Opp. vol. ii.
p. 194. Edit. Giles.
10
S. p. 7.
11
Bede, De Vitis BB. Abbatum. Opp. torn. iv. p. 375, Edit. cit. Venerable
Bede uses the word ecclesia.
68 Shrines.

Another church honour of our Ladye was erected at

in
12
Lestingau, now Lastingham, near Whitby
and in the year ;

13
s honour at Abingdon.
675 Cyssa built a church in our Ladye
The round church of our Ladye at Hexham, built by
St. Wuilfrid of York, which Aelred describes as having four
14
four quarters of the earth,
porticoes looking towards the
deserves more than a passing mention. He ascribes the work
to St. Wuilfrid only, but Richard, Prior of Hexham and a

contemporary of Aelred, says that the Saint began it, and that
15
it was finished by Acca.

In 705, on his return from Rome for the last time, St. Wuil
frid had a sudden seizure at Meaux, and lay motionless and

almost lifeless for four nights and days. All at once his speech
returned to him, and calling for Acca, he described to him the
wonderful vision which had been vouchsafed to him. The Arch
angel Michael had stood before him in the early morning,
beaming with celestial light, and the bearer of a message from
Heaven. He revealed to the Saint that the Blessed Virgin
Mother of God had interceded in his behalf, and that four
years had been added to his life on earth. "Go home,"
said
the Archangel, and erect a church in her honour who has won
"

for thee thy life. Andrew has one already, let not Marye be
forgotten."
16
Prior Richard adds that this church was destroyed
by the Danes, but restored by a priest of the place. Its remains
17
lie at the south-east corner of the chancel of the priory.
I must say a very few words on the churches of our Anglo-
Saxon forefathers, which even a well-informed writer describes
the comparatively rude structures of the seventh century."
"

as
I presume he speaks from an architectural point of view but :

ifthe Anglo-Saxon churches, as structures, were rude, they were

not ruder than those erected at Rome and elsewhere.
It should be borne in mind that from the time of the second
conversion of England, the great tide of pilgrims to the Limina
12 Edit.
Bede, Hist. Eccl. cap. xxiii. Opp. torn. ii. p. 357. cit.
13
S. p. i.

14
De Sanctis Ecclesia Hagustaldensis, et eorttm miraculis libellus (auctore Aelredo
Abbate Rie-vallensi), cap. v. p. 183. Surtees Society, vol. xliv. 1863.
15
History of the Chuich of Hexham, p. 15, vol. xliv. Surtees Society.
16
Eddi, Vita S. Wilfridi, episc. Ebor, apud Gale, Hist. Brit, etc, Scriptores xv.
Oxonii, 1691, torn. i.
cap. liv. p. 83.
17
History of the Church of Hexham, pp. 14, 15, notes.
 Churches. 69

Apostolorum set in, and this was not transitory, but incessant :

and this constant intimacy with Rome led at once to the intro
duction of Roman plans and designs into this country. I am
not aware that the BasilicJie, or what remains of them at Rome,
are considered as comparatively rude structures;" Anastasius
"

bears evidence to the immense wealth which began to be

expended upon the churches in Rome as soon as the persecu
tions ceased, and to the magnificence of their decoration, and
the richness of their altars and sacred furniture and one of the ;

greatest ecclesiastical attractions to the Christian architect and

archaeologist is the most interesting Basilica of St. Clement, and
the discoveries which have been made by its worthy Prior, Father
Mulhooly, O.P.
It is quite certain that whatever St. Augustine built would
have been in the fashion of Rome : therefore the church,
already mentioned, which he built in honour of our Ladye at
Cratundene may be safely pronounced to have been in the
Roman style. St. Bennet Biscop went to Rome three times ;

and when building the Church of our Ladye at Weremouth, he

sent for masons and glaziers from Gaul. 18 Of the minster which
St. Wuilfrid built from his own designs at Hexham, Eddi, his

biographer and contemporary, says that he had not heard of a

church erected on this side of the Alps which was its equal, 19
and Eadmer describes it as temptum mirabili Venerable opeir."

Bede records that the church at Lincoln, which, after the con
version of that district, St. Paulinus built, was of stone. 21 And
King Eadwine, who was baptized at York on Easter Sunday
the 1 2th of April A.D. 627, in the little wooden chapel which had
been erected in honour of St. Peter by St. Paulinus, as soon as
he was baptized, desired the Saint to build a larger and more
noble church (basilica] of stone, within which the wooden
oratory in which he had received the faith of Christ was to be
inclosed. 22
The church which the Princess Bugga, daughter of King
Eadwin, built was dedicated to the Nativity of our Ladye :

18
De Vitis BB. Abbatum, p. 366. Opp. torn. iv. Edit. cit.
19 Ubi sup.
20
Act SS. ad diem 24 April, p. 302. Edit. Palme.
81
Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. ii. cap. xvi. Opp. vol. ii. p. 241. Edit. cit.
22
Ibid. lib. ii., cap. xiv. Opp. torn. ii. p. 235.
*f6 Shrines.

Islam nempe diem, qua templifesta coruscani,

Nativitate sua sacravit Virgo Maria.

And our Ladye s altar stood in the apse :

Absidem consecrat Virginis ara. u

David gave three thousand talents of gold of the gold of

Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver to overlay
the walls of the Temple. 25 St. Gregory the Third, A.D. 730740,
covered the beams, which were placed over the Confession of
2G
St. Peter, with refined silver but our Godgifu covered the
;

walls of our at Coventry with a sheathing of

Ladye s Church
silver and the church which she and her pious husband built
;

at Evesham is described by the chronicler as one of the finest

churches in England.
27
No
wonder, therefore, that she is
28
recorded as having denuded herself of all that she possessed.
I do not hesitate to express my conviction that in splendour

and decoration, and in richness of church-plate, altars, and

vestments our Anglo-Saxon churches were pre-eminent.
In Ireland foundations in honour of our Ladye are coeval
with St. Patrick. According to Colgan, the Abbey of Canons
Regular at Trim was founded by St. Patrick himself in the year
432, and built on a piece of ground given for that purpose by
Fethlemid, the son of Leoghaire and grandson of Niall, and
dedicated to our Blessed Ladye. 29 Wilde is of opinion that the
original abbey which was dedicated to our Ladye stood, in all
probability, upon the picturesque site of the Yellow Tower,
which, in after ages, was erected here, and is stated to be the
most lofty remnant of Norman architecture now existing in
Ireland. 30
Under the heading of Clonfert, Archdall records that St.
Brendan the son of Findloga was a disciple of St. Finian in

23
Carmen ad Temphim Bugga, by St. Ealdhelm, given inter Opp. Alcuini,
torn. ii. col. 1311.
24
Ibid. col. 1310.
35
I
Paralip. xxix. 4.
26
Anastasius Bibliothecarius. In vita, opp. torn. ii. Edit. Migne.
27 S.
p. 36.
28
S. p. 21.
89
Butler, Trim Castle, p. 181, quoted by Gaffney, Ancient Irish Church,
Dublin, 1863, p. 70.
30
The Boyne and Blackivater, p. 83.
 Organs and Bells. 71

theAcademy of Clonard, and that in A.D. 553 or 562 he founded

an abbey here under the invocation of our Ladye. 31
Moreover, Wilde records of Kells, Co. Meath, that Dermod
the son of Fergus Kervail made a grant of this
place to St.
Columban, who founded a monastery here about the year 550
and dedicated it to our Ladye. 32 Here then are three instances
of dedications to our Blessed Ladye, the earliest
by St. Patrick,
and the third not later than the middle of the fifth century ; and
these prove that in Ireland, as well as in
England, devotion to
our Ladye was coeval with Christianity.

ORGANS AND BELLS.

Many churches had a pair of organs which seem to have
been used exclusively for the Marye Mass, and to have been
called by our Ladye s name thus, in the churchwarden s
;

accounts of Ludlow there an entry of the year 1543, "payed

is
33
for a corde to our Ladye organs, Formerly organs were
id."

invariably described as a pair of organs.

Some of the Ladye Altars were provided with what John
Baret of St. Edmund s Bury describes as the
chymes of bells,"
"

which were rung at the sakering of the Mass. These chimes

consisted of a number of small bells fixed to a wheel, which was
attached to the wall, and whirled round at the proper times.
At St. Edmund s Bury the wheel was set in motion by a
"plomme of and John Baret left to the bearer of the
led,"

pax brede longyng to Seynt Marie awter viiid. yerely, so that

he take hede ... to wynde vp the plomme of led as oft as
e
nedith, and to do the chymes goo at y sacry of the messe of
34
Ihv, at the sacry of Seynt Marie Masse on the Sunday. This
was an Anglo-Saxon custom. Bishop yEthelwald, the friend of
St. Dunstan, made a wheel full of small bells for Abingdon,
which from their being gilt was called the golden wheel, and
was to be rung on feast days to excite greater devotion. 35
31
Monasticon Hibernictim, p. 278.
32
The Boyne and Blackiuater, p. 144.
33
Published by the Camden Society.
3
s. P .
135.
35;
"Pneterea fecit vir venerabilis ./Ethel woldus quandam Rotam tintinnabulis
plenam, quam auream nuncupavit, propter laminas ipsius deauratas quam in festivis
diebus ad majoris excitationem devotionis reducendo volvi constituit (Man. Angl. t. i. "

p. 516). A wheel of bells of the fifteenth century at Gerona, in Spain, is figured by

Lubke (Ecclesiastical Art in Germany during the Middle Ages. Lond. 1870, p. 152).
72 Shrines.

I saw a similar wheel of bells at Mugnano, near

In 1840
Naples, which was usually whirled round before the shrine of
St. Philomena was uncovered.
The large bells used for the service of the Church are
baptized, and anointed with the holy oil, a godmother is given
to each bell, and also the name. The ceremony is a most
impressive one, as those who have assisted at it can well testify.
Many were named after our Blessed Ladye. Thus the
bells
two great bells which were put up at Evesham by Abbot Adam,
A.D. 1160 1191, were called Jesus and Gloriosa, and those cast
by order of Abbot Boys for the same abbey, A.D. 1345 1367,
were named Maria and Egwyn. Maria bore the inscription :

Me sonante, pia succurre Virgo Maria,

Ecclesie genti discedant fulgnra, venti.
MARIA. 30

At the church of St. Marye in Coslany, Norwich, was a bell

inscribed :

1
Virginis egregie vocor Campana Marie?"

The same inscription Simon and St. Jude in

was on a bell of St.
38
the same city. William, twenty-second Abbot of St. Albans,
39
gave the great bell called St. Marye to the abbey.
The Marye Bells were usually rung for the Marye Mass; and
several other inscriptions are recorded by -Lukis. Thus at
Awliscombe a bell is inscribed
-f- Protege memento pia quos. , . . Sancta Maria, 40

evidently intended for

-{- Protege mente pia quos convoco, Sancta Maria :

at Pulham, Dorset,
41
-f- Sunt mea spes hi tres, Xps Maria Johes :

at Dyrham, Gloucestershire,

+ Serva Campanam Sancta Maria sanam :

42

36
S. p. 38.
37
S. p. 114.
38
S. p. 116.
39
S. p. 131.
40
An Account of Church Bells, &c. By the Rev. W. C. Lukis, M.A., F.S.A.
London and Oxford, 1857, p. 69.
41
Ibid. p. 71.
Ibid.
 Organs and Bells. 73
and in Gloucester Cathedral,

-f- Sum rosa pulsata mundi Maria vocata :

43

at Hexham,
+ Est mea vox grata dum sim Maria vocata, A.D. mcccciiij ;
44

in Oxford Cathedral,
-f- Stella Maria Maris succurre piissima nobis ;
45

at East Bergholt, Suffolk,

-f- Sonans Stella Maria maris campana vocitaris ;

46

at Bedale, Yorks.,

+ lou ego cum fiam cruce custos laudo Mariam

Digna dei laude, mater sanctissima gaude. 47
and at Alkborough, Lincolnshire there is a bell in the church
tower inscribed,

-f- Jesu : for :

yi : modir : sake : saue : al : the : savls that me
: : :
gert :

make: amen. 4S

Moreover, in many churches there was a bell which was

rung
for the devotion called the
Angelus, in the form in which it was
recited prior to the middle of the sixteenth
century, and this
bell was called the Gabriel Bell. Thus the third bell of St.
Gregory s, Norwich, bore,
+ Gabriel ave, hac in conclave mine pange suave ;
49

and at Weston, Suffolk,

+ Missus vero pie Gabriel fert leta marie ;

60

at Welford, Berks,

+ Missi de celis habeo nomen Gabrielis. 51

This latter was a very common inscription for the Gabriel

bell.

43
An Account of Church Bells.
44
Ibid. p. 87.
45
Ibid. p. 89. This bell is said to have come from Osney.
46
Ibid. p. 97.
17
Ibid. p. 132. This inscription is given verbatim.
48
Instructions for Parish Priests. By John Myrk. Early English Text Society.
Edited by Edward Peacock, F.S.A. P. 76, note.
49
S. p. in.
60
S. p. 239.
51
Lukis, p. 263.
74 Shrines.

At Misterton, Notts, the Gabriel bell is inscribed,

62
-f- Personet hec celis dulcissime vox Gabrielis ;

and at King s Sutton, Northamptonshire,

+ Ave Maria gracia plena, dominus tecum.

53

in the
Bishop Grandison required that the bell which rang
College of St. Marye, Ottery, for the Marye Mass should also
54
be tolled for the evening Ave.
The plunder of the property of God at the Great Apostacy
is associated with many disgraceful scenes. When Christ our
Lord was His seamless
crucified the brutal soldiers cast lots for

Henry the Eighth, King of England, and Defender

"

garment.
of the Faith," cast at dice with Sir Miles Partridge for the bells
of St. Paul s Cathedral, London; and with that retributive justice
which invariably follows sacrilege,

. . . . Miles Partridge fell.

This last was hanged (in Rope of Bell

Perhaps), for he, as Heylin tells,

Cast Dice with old King Hal for Bells,
And by the sacrilegious Fling,
Won Jesus Bells, the finest Ring
That ever England had before ;

The Dev lish throw no sooner o er

But Partridge goes and melts em down
And sells the Mettle as his own. 65

WAX IMAGES.

During the Middle Ages wax figures were often placed in

churches. These images represented benefactors, or men of
position, whose memories it
was wished to perpetuate they ;

52
Lukis, p. 88.
53
Ibid. p. 85.
54 Much on bells is to be found in the Essai
S. p. 117. interesting information
harmonies avec la Religion par
stir le symbolisme de la Cloche dans ses rapports ct ses

unpr&re du clerge paroissial. Poitiers. Ouclin, lib. ed. Rue

de 1 eperon 4, 1859.
Ward, England s Reformation, canto i. p. too. London, 1719. I have often
55

heard it said that the two fine bells of the Gesu in Rome had formerly belonged to
St. Paul London. In the Revolution of 1848 they were taken by the scoundrels
s,

of the period, and melted down and cast into guns. The cannon burst at the first
discharge, and a good lay-brother bought
back the fragments of the burst guns, and
when better times returned the metal was recast into bells, which were placed again
in the Gesu.
 Ladye CJiapels. 75

were dressed as living persons, and they remained where they

were put until they perished with age. 56
They were sent as thank-offerings.
In 1439 Isabel, Countess of Warwick, leaves her great image
of wax, now in London, to Our Ladye of Worcester. 57 And
in Mrs. Paston writes to her husband, who was ill in
1443
London, to say that
"

My
mother behested another image of
58
wax, of the weight of you, to Our Ladye of Walsingham."
I have already referred to the numerous wax images which

were offered to our Ladye of Caversham. 59

In the year 1423 it was enacted that wax chandlers in

England shall sell figures et autres overaignes de cere faitz pur

60
oblation, only three pence in the pound dearer than plain wax.

2. LADYE CHAPELS. LORETO CHAPELS. OTHER LADYE

CHAPELS.

LADYE CHAPELS.
Every minster and every collegiate and parish church had
a chapel dedicated in honour of our Ladye, which was known
as the Chapel of our Ladye. If in some of the smaller parish
churches there was no Ladye Chapel, there would be at least
the Altar of our Ladye. Ladye Chapels were, as I have just
shown, coeval with the introduction of Christianity into England.
Moreover a
priest was generally in charge of these little
chapels, as at Caversham, where the Warden of the Chapel, as
he was called, was a Canon of Notley Abbey, and songe," i.e., "

said Mass, "in the chapell, and hadde the offeringes for hys
61
lyvinge."

Without, however, venturing to express a definite opinion

on the subject, it appears to me, after considerable investigation,
that there was no rubric for the exact position of the Ladye
Chapel in our English Churches. It should be borne in mind
that, according to general belief, our Lord was crucified with
56
Viollet le Due, Diet. Raisonne du mobilier Francais. Paris. P. 134. Cf.
also Ducange, sub. voc. Longitudo, Statiialis cereus, Statuarium.
67
S. p. 253.
i8
Paston Letters. Edit. Fenn, 1787. Vol. iii. p. 21.
58
S. pp. 10, ii.
60
Rotuli Parliament!, t. iv. p. 453 b.
61
S. p. ii.
76 Shrines.

His face to the West, and His back to Jerusalem, and that our
Ladye stood at His right hand, and consequently on the North
side and for this reason, as I have shown under
; Westminster,
the North Doors of Cathedrals were dedicated to our Ladye. 62
Frequently in parish churches the Ladye Chapel is on the North
side of the church. On the other hand, the early Ladye Chapel
at Canterbury was at the West end, and was re-erected by
Lanfranc in the aisle of the North nave. It occupied the South
choir-aisle at Elgin, and the North at Thetford, Hulme, Belvoir,

Bristol, Oxford, Llanthony, and Wymondham, but was detached

at Ely. At Waltham and Rochester it was on the North side
of the nave ; on the South of the choir at Ripon, where it is over
the Chapter-house in the South transept at Wimborne
;
at ;

Lincoln and Gloucester it is cruciform ;

at Lichfield and Wells
it has a polygonal apse, and at Durham it is in the Galilee. 63
In other instances, as at York, the Ladye Chapel stands
due East behind the Choir and High Altar. Dr. Rock thinks,
and I fully agree with him, that the Ladye Chapel, placed at
the East end, symbolizes our Lady as the Morning Star which
"

64
harbingered day in a ghostly meaning." There are many
passages in the Fathers which fully bear out this interpretation,
and describe our Ladye as the Aurora consurgens, or the Rising
Morn of the Day of Salvation, that is, Christ our Lord. 65
At Mildenhall, in Suffolk, the Ladye Chapel was over the
m at St. Andrew
porch ; s, Norwich, the Chapel of our Ladye of
67
Grace was under the steeple.
With the
Benedictines, it seems to have been the custom to
place an image of our Ladye in the centre over the High Altar ;

and another in a side chapel, so that the monks might not be

disturbed when singing Divine Office by the crowds of people
who came to implore her help. 68 Although this is mentioned

62
S. pp. 223, seq.
63
Church and Conventual Arrangement. By Mackenzie E. C. Walcott, M.A.,
F.S.A., p. 107.
61
Church of our Fathers, vol. iii. p. 264.
68
Marracci quotes one hundred and ninety-one instances of Aurora being applied
to our Blessed Ladye (Polyanthaa Mariana, sub voce).
66
S. p. 102.
67
S. p. 108.
68
Epitome Chron. celebr. Monast. S. Nicasii Remensis O.S.B. c. x. apud Morlot.
Metropolis Remensis Historia. Remis, 1679, t. i.
p. 659.
 Loreto Chapels. 77

in the history of a French Benedictine Monastery, inos Bene-

dictinorum evidently refers to the usual custom of the Order.

LORETO CHAPELS.
DEIPARjE DOMUS UBI VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST. C9

The Holy House of the Blessed Mother of God at Loreto

enjoys a singular veneration from its having been the scene of

the Incarnation of the Son of God.
The Church celebrates the festival of the Translation of the

Holy House on the loth of December and there is a proper ;

Mass and proper Office in the Missal and the Breviary. By

order of Pope Sixtus the Fifth, in 1586, Priests celebrating Mass
in the Holy House say in the last Gospel, Hie Verbum caro

factum est, instead of Et Verbum, etc.

70

Engraved on a pillar in the North aisle of the Cathedral

of Loreto is a narrative by R. F. Robert Corbington, S.J.,
entitled

THE WUNDRUS FLITTINGE OF THE KIRK OF OUR BLEST

LADY OF LAURETO.
and concluding thus
By decree of the meikle worthy I, Robert Corbington, priest of
Monsignor Vincent Casal of Bolonea, the Companie of Jesus, in the yeir
Ruler of this helly place, under the MDCXXXV. heve trulie translated

protection of the most werthy Cardinal, the premisses out of the Latin storie
To the praise and glorie of the most hangged up in the seyd kirk,
pure and immaculate Virgin.

For the ghostly comfort of those who wished to go on pil

grimage to our Ladye of Loreto, and were prevented by
circumstances, the pious custom arose of erecting in various
places chapels which were exact representations of the Holy
House, and in which a statue of Our Lady of Loreto was placed
in the niche behind the altar. Guppenberg says the earliest
Loreto Chapel so erected was at Lille, by John Luffold, who
was attached to the Court of Charles the Fifth. 71
I have shown by a comparison of the measurements that

the Sanctuary of Our Ladye of Walsingham was not a model

69
Inscription on the front of the Church at Loreto, erected by Pope Sixtus V.
70
Loreto and Nazareth. By W. A. Hutchison, Priest of the Oratory, p. 47.
London, 1863.
71
Atlas Mariames, p. 112.
78
Shrines.

72
of the Holy House of Nazareth. But the old tradition says
73
that it was.
Dom Richard Beere, Lord Abbot of Glastonbury, who was
sent to Rome in the twenty-second of Henry the Seventh,
from his Embassadrie out of Italic, made
1506, 1507, "coming

a chapel of our Ladye de Loretta joining the north side of the

74 75
body of the chirche," at Glastonbury.
At Musselburgh in Scotland there was a chapel of Our Ladye
of Loreto, which Tursellino describes as a little church
76
"

some
House of Loreto;" and there was
thing like to the Sacred
another one at Perth, called Allareit. The materials of the
when finally destroyed in 1
590, were used for building
former,
the Tolbooth,
77
and what remains of Allareit at Perth is now
78
the Police Office.
with
Hence appears that England and Scotland kept pace
it

other nations in their devotion to Our Ladye of Loreto; and if

the Loreto Chapel at Glastonbury was a model of the Holy

on record, to
House, as it seems to be the earliest instance
Abbot Beere will be due the credit of having erected the first

facsimile of the Holy House of Loreto.

The Holy House at Loreto is not only faced on the outside
79
with marble, the work of Clement the Seventh, but it is

inclosed within the church, which is built over it. This is an

after his
old English custom, for King Eadwine, baptism,
ordered St. Wuilfrid to inclose the wooden church in which he
80
had received the waters of salvation within a church of stone;
and the wooden sanctuary of Our Ladye at Walsingham was
also inclosed within a stone chapel, which communicated with
81
the priory church.

OTHER LADYE CHAPELS.

In addition to the Ladye Chapels in churches, and Ladye
Chapels on bridges, several others, which possess
considerable
mentioned in the Series. Thus the history of the
interest, are
82
Chapel of our Ladye at Wroxhall is the counterpart of that
72 S. 73
pp. 169, 170. S. p. 157.
75 76 77
74 S. p.- 48. S. p. 303.
S. p. 301.
Leland, Itin. vol. iii. p. 489.
78
So I am informed by a Rev. correspondent, letter dated February 18, 1875.
Hutchison, Loreto and Nazareth, p. 27.
79

80 lib. ii. cap. xiv. vol. Edit. cit.

Bede, Hist. Eccl. Opp. ii. p. 235.
81 82
S. pp. 163, seq. S. p. 254.
 Ladye Altars. 79

of the foundation of the Basilica of St. Marye Major, at Rome,

in the year 352. 83 The Chapel Our Ladye of Pewe was one
of
of the most celebrated in England.
84
The Ladye chapel at
the bridge at Beccles 85 had an ankret, and those of Court-up-
Street 80 and our Ladye of Grace at Quarrywell 87 each had a
hermit. 88 The little Chapel of our Ladye in the Park, near
Liskeard, was an early place of pilgrimage, and in 1441 Bishop
Lacy granted an indulgence to those who contributed towards
89
the repair of the road to it. The Chapel of our Ladye at

King s Lynn is remarkable for its architectural construction. 90

Chapel of our Ladye in Berkeley Castle

Finally, the private
was of no small importance, as appears from the Bull of Urban
the Fifth. 91 It seems curious, however, that indulgences should
be offered to benefactors of vestments, chalices, and any other
aids of charity to the private chapels in the castle of an English
Baron of the fourteenth century.

3. LADYE ALTARS. INSCRIPTIONS. CANDLES. RELICS.

LADY ALTARS.
If Sixtus the Third, A.D. 432 440, gave an altar of silver
weighing three hundred pounds to the Patriarchal Basilica of
St. Marye Major, 92 our Ine, in 725, gave 264lbs. of gold for the
altar of the silver chapel at Glastonbury. 93 What our forefathers
saw done in Rome, they themselves did in England and the ;

altar frontals of the Anglo-Saxon Church were often of the

most gorgeous character, made of gold and silver, and adorned
with precious stones. Many altars graced the Anglo-Saxon
churches they were generally of stone, which of course would
;

be concealed by the frontals relics were inclosed in them as

;

83
Cf. Breviarium Romanum ad diem 5 Aug.
84
S. pp. 229 239.
85
S. p. 3.
86
S. p. 16.
87
S. p. 129.
18
Thisthe difference between a hermit and an ankret a hermit might leave
is :

an ankret never went beyond the threshold of the building in which he

his cell, but
had vowed to live and die.
89
S. pp. 65, 66.
90
S. p. 99.
91
S. p. 266.
92
Anast. Bibliothecar. in vita, t. ii. Edit. Migne.
93
S. p. 46.
8o Shrines.

now; and was this peculiarity with the Anglo-Saxons,

there
that could not be obtained, the most Blessed Eucharist
if relics

was inclosed within the altar and this liturgical practice lasted
;

in England up to the time of Lyndwood, A.D. 1446?*

The altars were of smaller dimensions than
Anglo-Saxon
those which now are erected, and this appears to have been in
accordance with the use at Rome, for William of Malmesbury
relates that St. Ealdhelm brought back with him from Rome in
the year 701, an altar the dimensions of which were one foot and
95
a half high, four feet long, and three palms wide.
The great sapphire given by St. David to our Ladye of
Glastonbury was set in a supcraltare:
Images of our Ladye were set in tabernacles over the high
97
altar in many of our large churches, as at Glastonbury and
Worcester. 98
In York Minster the high altar was considered
the altar of our Ladye, whose gilt image stood near the south
end, and whenever Mass was celebrated at that altar, two large
wax candles were lit before our Ladye. 99 Moreover it was the
custom at York for the hebdomadarius who sang the daily High
Mass image of our Ladye
to carry from the sacristy a silver gilt
with her Divine Son in her arms, which he placed upon the high
I have not found any evidence that a similar custom was
100
altar.

observed in other cathedral churches in England, so it speaks

well of the profound old Yorkshire devotion for our Blessed

Ladye. But images of our Ladye were used to decorate altars,

when they were arrayed in becoming splendour, for the cele
101
bration of festal days.
The Series affords interesting evidence about these altars of
our Ladye in the Catalogue of Shrines ;
and the different titles

under which they were consecrated. there was an At Coventry

altar of our Ladye in Gesem ; at Durham, and in many m
91 all authorities and details cf. Rock, Chttrch of our Fathers, vol. i. pp. 41, 42.
For
95
Sesquipedali crassitudine, quadrupedal! longitudine, et latitudine trium pal-
"

marum" (De Gest. Pont. Anglor. lib. v. p. 372. Rolls Edit.).

86 For full details about superaltars see Rock, Church of our Fathers,
S. p. 44.
vol. i. pp. 249 263.
97 Ibid.
p. 48.
98
Ibid. p. 252.
99 Ibid. 260.
p.
100
Ibid. p. 260.
111
Cf. Wills of Northern Counties. Surtees Soc. p. 7.
102
Mon. Angl. torn. iii.
p. 188.
 Ladye Altars. 8r

other churches, there was an altar of our Ladye of Pity; 103 at

Evesham there were set on four different altars images of our
Ladye and feyre arayed wyth golde and
"right
well peynted
divers other colours, the
whyche schewyd to the people that
behylde hem grete devocyon at Hingham there was an ;
"
m
105
altar of her Nativity ;
at Peterborough, the altar of our Ladye
of Pity was known as that of our Ladye s Lamentation 103 a
titlewhich, by the way, leaves no doubt as to the iconography
at St. Albans there was the altar of
"

of our Ladye of Pity "

our Ladye called of the Four Candles, Quatuor Cereorum,

because four candles offered by four of the officials of the abbey
were daily lighted during the Marye Mass 107 and at Perth the ;

Church of St. John had forty altars, all endowed, amongst which
were five of our Ladye and one of St. Joseph. 108
There are many technical features about English altars which
do not exclusively relate to those of our Ladye. But in the
twelfth century, and as Dr. Rock says, perhaps earlier, there
was to be found in our churches, over, but eastward to the back
of the high altar, a square beam, the ends of which were let
into the walls of the chancel, which was decorated in the most

splendid manner in the centre stood the Rood with Marye and
;

John, as it is usually described, and along the beam, on either

side, were placed reliquaries and texts," and holy books, which
"

had belonged to, or had been written by, sainted men. 109 But
these reliquaries must not be confounded with the greater
shrines of the Saints of England, which occupied a fixed

position in their various churches. These shrines made of the

precious metals were adorned with images of our Blessed Ladye
and the Saints. On the west side of the shrine of St. Albans
was an image, in high relief and decorated with gems, of our
110
Ladye with her Divine Son seated on her lap,.
The shrine of St. Edward was adorned by a silver image of
our Ladye, which was placed there by Queen Eleanor of
Provence, and in 1243 1244 Henry the Third caused an
emerald and a ruby to be set in the forehead of that image.
Affixed also to this shrine was an ivory image of our Ladye
which had been offered by St. Thomas of Canterbury. 111 In the
103 a 4
S. p. 29. Ibid. p. 37.
105 106 ]0 J08
Ibid. p. 54. Ibid. 127. <

S. p. 133. Ibid. p. 303.

103
Clnirch of our Fathers, vol. iii. p. 471.
110
S. p. 130.
m S.
p. 222,

f
82 Shrines.

year 1355, Elizabeth de Clare, daughter of Gilbert, Earl of

Gloucester, made this bequest :

Je devise a Seint Thomas de Hereford un ymage de nre dame

d argent surorre d estre tache sur son fiertre

INSCRIPTIONS.

The Councilof Celchyth held on the 2/th of July in the

of Canterbury, and at
year 816, under Wuilfrid, Archbishop
which Ceonuulf of Mercia assisted, issued the following mandate
to each bishop, viz. : Ut habeat depictum in pariete oratorii ant

in tabula, vcl etiam in altaribus, quibns Sanctis simt utraque

dicata These words, evidently refer to paintings, and not to
114
inscriptions; and tabula,
or "picture," means the reredos, or
in this instance, and not the frontal of the altar.
altar-piece,
The Constitutions of William de Bleys, Bishop of Lincoln
115
A.D. 1229, require inscriptions on the altars.

The poems of Alcwine contain two or three or four lines or

110
so, adapted to altars
of our Ladye, and many other equally
short ones, to altars of the Saints but none of these appear to ;

have been written for England. Whatever may have been the
practice in Anglo-Saxon times, inscriptions on altars were in

fashion shortly after the Norman invasion.

Weever has preserved several other inscriptions which were
near or on Ladye altars. A few examples may be
Ora mente pia pro nobis Virgo Maria.
Virgo Dei Genitrix sit nobis Aiixiliatrix.
Virgo Maria tnos serva sine crimine servos.
Liberet a pena nos cceli porta serena.
Virga virens Jesse nos veruni ducat ad Esse.
Nos ditet venia Sanctissima Virgo Maria.
Nos rege, swnme Pater, nos integra protege Mater.
Nos jungat thronis veri Thromis Salomonis.
Adfontem venie ducat nos dextra Mane. 117
118
Nichols, Royal Wills, p. 31.
JJ3 torn. viii. col. 1485.
Labbe,
114
Cf. Martial, Encaustns Phaton tabula depictus in hac est.

115
In ecclesiis dedicatis, anmis et dies dcdicationis, ct nomen dedicantis, et nomcn
Sancti in honore dedicata est ecclcsia, distincte el aperte scribantur circa majtts
cnjiis
altare, in loco ad hunc idoneo : idem fiat circa minora altaria (Wilkins, Cone. torn. i.

p. 624).
116
Opp. t. ii. n. 53, col. 743; n. 121, col. 757; n. 173, col. 771; n. 203, col. 774.
Edit. Migne.
117
Ancient Fvneratt Monvmcnts. London, 1631, pp. 119, 120..
 Candles. 83

Moreover, according to the same authority

"

Organs, pulpits,
portals, crosses, candlesticks, roods, crucifixes, and what else
of that kinde were likewise thus inscribed, all of which with
the rest, were crazed, scraped, cut out, or taken away by the
Commissioners, and instead of them certaine sentences of the
Holy Scripture appointed to be painted or dispensild in every
318
Church."

VOTIVE CANDLES.
Laudare prceterea reliquias, venerationem et invocationem sanctorum;
item stationes peregrinationesque pias, indulgentias, jubilcea, candclas in
Templis accendi solitas, et reliqua hujiismodi pietatis ac devotionis nostrtv
adminicula^
a very old and universal custom to burn candles before
It is

images of our Blessed Ladye. 120 The story of the Abbot John,
quoted by many different writers, may be mentioned here with
advantage. It was related in the seventh (Ecumenical Council,

the second of Nicaea, A.D. 787, by Dionysius, priest of the church

of Ascalon, who took it from the Ecclesiastical History of
121
Evagrius.
At Sicchus, twenty short miles from Jerusalem, there lived
in a cave an ankret, by name John. Here he had an image
of our Blessed Ladye with her Divine Son in her arms, before
which he always kept a candle burning. Whenever he was
going away on a journey, either into the desert or to Jerusalem,
or to make his prayer on Mount Sinai, or to other sanctuaries
of the martyrs, he would go to our Ladye, and say to her :

Sancta Domino, Deipara, qnandoquidem restat mi/a longum iter

conficiendum, candclam tuaui cnra, cainqne inextinctam juxta
meum proposition serva. Nam ego, tuo fretus subsidio, longum
iter ingredior. And on his return he invariably found that
122
the candle which he had lighted was still burning.
This pious custom was most common in England. In the
year 1225, William, Earl of Salisbury, otherwise known as

118
Ancient Fvneratt Monuments, p. 123.
Reg. VI. regular, ut cum orthodoxa Ecclesia sentiamus. Excrcitia Spiritnalia
119

S. P. Ignatii Loyol, cum versione literal! ex autographo Hispanico. Lond. 1837,

P- 33i-
m On the use of lights see Rock, Himrgia. Lond. 1851, pt. ii. ch. xi. pp. 391 411.
121
Lib. iv. cap. xxvi. Labbe, ubi infra.
122
Labbe, Concilia, t. vii. col. 808, 809.
84 Shrines.

Long-Sword,
123
was nearly lost at sea in a violent storm on his
return to England. When
they were in the uttermost despair,
suddenly a large wax taper, burning with a brilliant light,
was seen at the mast-head by all who were thus in danger
on board the ship by the side of the candle they beheld a lady
;

of wondrous beauty standing, who protected the light of the

candle, which brilliantly illumined the darkness of the night
from the violence of the squalls and the heavy downpour of the
rain. Whereupon, from this vision of heavenly brightness the
Earl, as well as all the crew, feeling assured of their safety,
acknowledged that Divine assistance was with them. And
whilst every one on board was ignorant of the portent of this
vision, Earl William alone attributed the favour of this kindness
to the Blessed Virgin Marye, because from the day when he
was first girt with the belt of knighthood, he had assigned one
wax taper before the altar of the most Blessed Mother of God,
which should burn during the Mass which was sung every day
in honour of the said Mother of God, and during the Canonical
124
Hours, and thus exchange the temporal for the Light eternal.
The Earl died in the following year. It was said that poison
had been administered to him. Feeling his end drawing near,
he retired to his castle at Salisbury, and sent for the Bishop,
from whom he received the last sacraments of the Church,
and died an edifying death. It happened, continues Wendover,
that whilst his body was being carried from his castle to the new
church, about a mile distant, for burial, the lighted candles,
which were borne with the cross and thurible, according to
custom, gave, amidst the heavy rain and gusts of wind, a con
tinued light throughout the journey, so as to make it clearly
evident, that the Earl, who had been so penitent, already
125
belonged to the sons of Light.
Throughout the Scries there is a constant record of lights
and lamps kept burning before images of our Ladye and it ;

seems to have been an universal custom throughout England to

123
This was his epitaph :

Flos comitum Willelmus obit, stirps regia, Longus

Ensis vaginam cepit habere brevem.
(Rog. de Wendover, Flares Hist. Edit. Coxe. Lond. 1842, vol. iv. p. 117, note.)
124
Wendover, edit. cit. vol. iv. p. 105, ad ann. 1225.
125
Ibid. p. 126. ad ann. 1226.
 Candles. 85

burn lamps or candles before her principal image at least ; and

the foundations and endowments made for this object were
on no niggardly scale. 126 Lands given for this purpose were
127
called lamp-lands and light-lands, and bequests of this nature
and in money occur at an early date. 123 Lands were held by the
service of providing lights to burn before our Ladye, as at East
Herling and Plympton. At Chobham, Norton, and Wyke,
sheep, and at Chevington and Felsham cows, were left for the
support of our Ladye s light whilst at Ixworth Thorpe, in
;

1524, Golfrey Gilbert leaves to our Ladye s light one skeppe of

bees to be delyvered to the fermor, and he to delyver it to the
next fermor, wt all the increase at his departyng. 120
in various parish churches there were lights named
Moreover,
after the different classes of those who kept them burning, such
131
as the Common Light,
130
the Married Men s Light, the
132 133
Bachelors or Singlemen s Light, and the Plough Light.
135
Mention often occurs of the Jesus Light,
184
of the Rood Light,
and of the Ladye Light. One of the Ladye altars at St. Albans
was called that of the Four Tapers. 130 In many churches,
Ladye lights were supported by the gilds, some of which were
founded for this very object.
It in rural districts that candles were kept
was not only
burning before our Ladye. Thus Henry the Eighth used to
our Ladye
keep candles, called the King s Candles, before
137
at Doncaster, and at Walsingham, and the Earl of North
umberland maintained candles at the same sanctuaries all the
138
year round.
On festal days the candles burning before our Ladye were

65 for Lincoln, and

126 118 for St.
S. p. p. Mary Ottery.
127
Money expended in wax lights was called wax-shot (General History of
Norfolk, p. 968, note).
8
"
S. p. 61.
129 S. see under the different places named.
130
S. p. 144.
33i
Proceedings of the Suffolk A retheological Institute, vol. ii. p. 140.
132
S. p. 144.
333
S. p. 152.
134
S. p. 246.
135
S. p. 61.
136
S. p. 133.
i"
S pp.
.
28, 195.
138
S. pp. 28, 191.
$6 Shrines.

wreathed with flowers, 139 and on some occasions shields with

140
armorial bearings were attached to them.
Candles burnt in honour of the five joys of our Ladye were
called Gaudes or Gawdyes, and also William Berdewel, "Joys."

senior, of West Sterling in Norfolk, c. 1445, leaves to the feywe

141
joys afore our Ladye xx

RELICS.
The mention of shrines and reliquaries naturally calls atten
tion to some relics of our Blessed Ladye which were venerated
in England.
Relicsdivided into two classes, Real and Sanctified.
may be
Sanctified ones are those which have touched the real relics,
and may or may not be copies of the originals. Such were
the handkerchiefs and aprons which had touched the body of
"

St. Paul cast out devils, and cured all diseases."

At the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, at Rome,
one of the Nails of our Lord is preserved models or copies ;

of it are made, and they each have an authentication under

seal, declaring that they are only copies of the original Nail
which they have touched. In the Wardrobe books of the
twenty-eighth year of Edward the First is mentioned wins
pannus lintens qui tetigit siidarimn CJiristi^- This was a sanc
tified relic.

I shall speak about the Relics of the True Cross, and of the
so-called
"

Milk of our Ladye," in the Series under Walsingham.

Our Anglo-Saxon
forefathers held holy relics in the highest
veneration. When
the decrees of our Bishops and Provincial
Synods, and the fact that relics cannot be bought or sold for
money, and cannot be exposed for public veneration, unless
they are sealed by proper authority and duly authenticated,
are taken into consideration, the watchful care of the Church
at once becomes manifest and the oft-repeated and as often
;

refuted charges about manufactured relics," which Anglicans

"

so frequently adduce, merely prove the ignorance if nothing

139
S. p. 131.
14tt
S. p. 70.
141
S. p. 42 ; also Blomefiehl, vol. i. p. 204.
342
Liber qiiolidiamis contrarohilatoris garderobuc anno Regis Edwardi I. vicesimo
octavo. Loncl. 1787. pp. 347.
 Relics. 87

worse of those who make these accusations. At the same

time, in qualification of what I have just said, I may observe
that the treasuries of churches often contain relics which are
not, and cannot be exposed for public veneration, because the
authentications have been lost and moreover, that unprincipled ;

lay-sacristans occasionally, I fear, amuse themselves by "selling"

Anglican travellers with some stupendous tale, in the hope of
a larger "

knowing
mancia," well that their victims will
"swallow"

any story, however preposterous, provided they can use it, as

they hope, to the detriment of the Church.
The Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries,
edited for the Camden Society by Mr. Thomas Wright, mention
some curious "

relics," such as Malcom s ear that Peter struck

"

off." Now items of this sort do not figure in any of the genuine
English lists of venerable relics there is not a tittle of evidence ;

that these objects were ever exposed for veneration indeed, how
could they have been ? and the explanation of them is of the
simplest and the most natural, viz., that they were properties,"
"

(I believe this is the correct term in theatrical parlance) belong

ing to, and used by the various gilds in their sacred pageants
and processions. Moreover, in some churches, representations
of the festival itself, e.g., the Annunciation, were given, as in
the Church of St. Jacques at Bruges. At Seville I believe there is
a large wing of feathers labelled as that of the Archangel Gabriel.
In his will dated May Qth, William Haute says:
1462, by "I

bequeath one piece of that stone on which the Archangel Gabriel

stood, when he descended to salute the Blessed Virgin Mary,
to the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the church of
143
Bourne, the same to stand under the foot of the same image."
And amongst the relics preserved at St. Albans there was one
described as De ubi Christus Aniiuiiciatus est Virgini Glo-
loco

riosce^ The nature of these two relics is obvious they ;

were fragments from the floor of the Holy House of Loreto,

which was the scene of the Annunciation. Sixtus the Fourth,
1471 1484, repaved the Holy House with marble, the ancient
145
pavement having been carried off as relics by pilgrims.
Layton or Leighton, one of the Commissioners, in 1537 sends
to Cromwell "

strange things . . .
part of God s Supper in ccena

domini, pars petrtz super quain natus erat Jesus in Bethlehem"

143 4 145
S. p. 4.
"
Mon. Ani>l. torn. ii.
p. 234. S. p. 161.
88 Shrines.

from Maiden Bradley. In the former, "table" was evidently

omitted wilfully the second would have been a bit of stone
;

from the Chapel of the Nativity. The table of the Last Supper
is at St. John Lateran s in Rome.
In the early days of the Christian era, the hair of the martyrs
was carefully collected and preserved. 146 It is natural to suppose
that some portions of our Ladye s hair would be treasured up
carefully ; indeed, relics of her hair are mentioned at a very
early period,and like all the principal relics of our Ladye,

they appear to have come from Constantinople.

There was a relic of our Ladye s hair at Croyland in the
time of Abbot Turketul, who died A.D. 975 it was the gift of ;

the Emperor, Henry the Second, who had received it from

Hugh Capet, King of France. 147 King /Ethelstan gave some
of our Ladye hair
of Jure fcaxe to Exeter, as is
s mentioned
in the list of relics at Exeter, in Anglo-Saxon, in a MS. in the
Bodleian Library. 148 Some of our Ladye s hair was also pre
served at Canterbury. 149 From these and other instances it
appears that relics of our Ladye s hair have been venerated
for many centuries. 150
The principal relics of our Blessed Ladye are those consist
ing of portions of her garments and her Zona or girdle. They
were brought from Jerusalem to Constantinople at the desire
of the Empress Pulcheria. She converted the synagogue of
the Jews ev ro% xahzo -paTsoic, or the Forum Fabrorum, as Lang
construes it, into a magnificent church in honour of our Ladye,
in which she placed the Zone, and the tomb, as it is called, of
the Blessed Mother of God ;
but it is most probable that tomb
or sepulchre is used to express the coffin, or else some portion
of the sepulchre of our Ladye 151 which many years later
Venerable Bede saw in the Valley of Jehosaphat.
152
In con-
146
Disquisit. Reliq. Auct. J. Ferrando, S.J., 1. iv. c. iv. 4.
347
Man. Angl. t. ii.
p. 94.
148
Ibid. p. 528.
140
Her Lconis dc Rosmital (Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart,
vol. vii. 1844) p. 39.
250
Cf. Mabillon, Analccta Vetera. Paris, 1723, p. 433; Locri. Maria Augusta.
Atrebati, 1608, lib. v. ch. 22, p. 525; Baronius, ad ann. 1123; Annales, torn. xii.
p. 152. Antv. 1609.
51
On this point see Baronius, ad ann. 48 ; and Locri, Maria Augusta, lib. v.
ch. 39, pp. 352355-
152
Delods Sanctis, ch. v. opp. torn. iv. p. 416. Edit Giles.
 Relics. 89

sequence this church was called that of the Holy Tomb Ay/a
153
26/>o
c.

The festival of the Deposition of the Girdle of our Ladye

is kept in the Greek Church on the 3ist of August. 154 The
festival of the Girdle of our Ladye is celebrated throughout
the Augustinian Order on the Sunday within the Octave of
St. Augustine. 155 Pulcheria also built the church of our Ladye
Tuv odqyuv, which she placed the picture of the Blessed Virgin
in

painted by St. Luke, which had been sent to her by her sister
Eudoxia. 150 The Greek Church celebrates the deposition of
this picture on the 26th of August. A third church of our
Ladye built by Pulcheria was that of the Blacherna, in which
157
the robe of our Ladye was placed. The festival of its depo
sition is kept in the Greek Church on the 2nd of July. 158
from this venerable store that the various relics of our
It is

Ladye which are preserved in many churches of Europe have

come. One of the most authentic is the mantle-veil of our
Ladye at Chartres, which has always been called the caniisia.
It was brought from Constantinople by Charlemagne, who had
received it from the Emperor Leo the Fourth, and given to
Chartres by Charles the Bald in the year 826. 159
At Peterborough there was a super-altar made of a fragment
of the tomb of our Ladye, 160 and a piece of the same relic was
also preserved at St. Albans. 161 At Windsor, beneath the high
altar, there was a relic of the same, described as de tumba Beatcs
Marice and a fragment of the same was found with the other
relics inclosed in the head of the statue of our Ladye at

153
Nicephorus Callixtus, Hist. Ecclesiastica. Edit. J. Lang. Paris, 1574; col. 972.
154
Ephemerides Graco-Mosca:, apud Act. SS. ; torn. i. Mail, f. xlii. Menologiwn
Grcccum Basilii Maced. Imp., Urbini, 1727, ad diem 31 Aug. Alenologium Grcccum.
Edit. Sirlati, ad diem 31 Aug. Colvener, Kalendariuin Marianum, ad diem
31 Aug. I.
155
Miechoviensis, Discitrsus pradicabiles super Litanias Lauretanas. Neapoli, 1857,
torn. ii. p. 57. Note of Editor.
156
Nicephorus, ubi sup. col. 972.
157 Ibid.
col. 973.
58
Ephemerides Graco-Mosca, f. xxxiv. Colvener, Kalendarittin Mariamtm, ad
diem 2 Julii, ii.

159
Capgrave, De Illttstribus Hcnricis, p. 10. Rolls Edit. For the relics at Notre
Dame de Chartres, see Haman, Notre Dame de France, pp. 200 211.
J6
Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. i. p. 256.
161
Man. Angl. torn. ii.
p. 254.
162
Ibid. t. vi. p. 1365.
go Shrines.

Thetford. 163 In the list of the relics at Windsor, there is one

described as dc ^tna candcla B. Virgiuis.* Evidently this was
a candle from Arras, which had either touched the Holy Candle
there, or was one of the facsimiles made of it, and having a
few drops from the original incorporated in it. Only twenty
candles are recorded to have been thus made, the first in the
year 1105, the last some time about 1720; but there is no
mention of one having been sent to England. 165 Space will
not allow me to give the history of the Holy Candle still

preserved in the Church of Notre Dame-des-Ardents at

Arras. 166
167
Relics of our robes were preserved at St. Albans
Ladye s ;

and at Exeter relics of her robe and of her veil. 168

Another great relic of our Ladye was her girdle. So many
girdles of our Ladye are enumerated both in England and
elsewhere, that evident they either contained a bit of the
it is

Constantinople relic, or were copies which had touched the

original and become "sanctified" relics. Lord Herbert of
Cherbury, in his Life of Henry the Eighth, says that our
Ladye s girdle was shown in eleven several places in England,

and her milk in eight, but he has not given the names of the
169
localities.

In the list of relics under the high altar at Windsor is

mentioned nna zona alba S. Joliis Evangdistce quam dcdit Bcatce
170
Maries; at London, Leo de Rosmital saw a girdle of the

Virgin Mother of God which she is said to have made with

her own hands m
a relic of the girdle of our Ladye was
;

172
preserved in the Cluniac Abbey at Thetford, and a portion
of the same was found inclosed in the head of the statue of

163
S. p. 149.
104
Ibid.
165
Cf. Sancfttaires de Notrc-Dame-des-Ardents, on notices stir les saints cierges

provenant de la Sainte Chandelle d Arras. Par M. 1 Abbe Proyart, 1872. The list

of the candles given by Cavrois, Append, n. xxxvi. pp. 242

is
244.
166
Cf. Carttilaire de Notre-Dames-des- At dents a Arras. Par Louis Cavrois,
Chev. de 1 Ordre de S. Gregoire-le-Grand. Arras, 1876.
167
Mon. An%l. t. ii.
p. 234.
168
Ibid. p. 528.
169
Life and Reign of Henry VIII. p. 431. Lond. 1649.
170
Mon. Angl. t. vi. p. 1365.
171
Iter. &c. p. 41.
172
Mon. Angl. t. v. p. 148.
 Relics. 91

our Ladye of Thetford and in the Church of the Holy

;
173

Trinity at Dublin there was a relic of our Ladye, which in

the Martyrology is described as our Ladye s vest," but in "of

the Book of Obits, which was written after 1461, in which year
many of the relics were destroyed by the fall of the west
174
window, it is called the "zone of our Ladye." Moreover,
by dated August 26, 1463, Eufemia Langton, wife of Sir
will

John Langton of Farnley, near Leeds, bequeathed to Margaret

Meyryng, her daughter, a silver-gilt cross, an Agnus Dei, and
zonam Bcatcs Maria Virginis To my mind this is evidence
"

that these girdles of our Ladye were only either sanctified

"

girdles, or that they contained at most but a thread of the great

relic of the Girdle of our Ladye.
I have mentioned elsewhere that ladies were recommended
for safe wear a girdle with the Magnificat inscribed
delivery to
upon it ;
chemisettes of our Ladye of Chartres were also sent
to ladies for the same intention, and the girdle of our Ladye at
Westminster, if not taken habitually to ladies expecting their

confinement, was at least conveyed to Elizabeth of York, for

in the book of her
privy-purse expenses, the following entry
occurs on the I3th of December, 1502.
"

Item, to a monke that brought oure Ladye gyrdelle to the

17(i
quene in reward e, vis. viiu/."

One of the commissioners, R. Layton or Leighton, writing

in 1537 to Cromwell,
says : "I send you also our Ladye s girdle
of Bruton, red silk, a solemn relic, sent to women in travail."

Ferrand mentions, from what he had seen when a boy, that

a relicof the girdle of our Ladye was taken by the Canons
of Le Puy to ladies "in
bedgang," and that a portion of it was
also conveyed to the Queen of France, who was expecting her
confinement. 177
Many bequests of girdles were made to images of our Blessed
Ladye : thus in 1490, Sir Gilbert Stapylton leaves to the Abbess
of Aston church a girdle of silver-gilt to hang at an image of
S. p. 149-
174
Book of Obits and Martyrology of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,
commonly called Christ Church, Dublin, p. Ixvii. Printed for the Irish Archaeological
Society, 1844.
175
Test.Ebor. vol. ii. p. 258.
176
Nicolas, Prizy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, p. 78. Loncl. 1830.
177
Disquisit. Reliq, p. 85.
92 Shrines.

our Ladye in the said church; 178 in 1442, Richard Cotingham

bequeathed a red belt well adorned with silver to the image of
our Ladye in the little chapel near St. Marye s Abbey, York ;
17

and John White, who had been Mayor

of Dublin in the years
1424, 1431, and 1432,
a girdle of the price of 2Os. to the
left
180
image of our Ladye in Christ Church. It is possible that
these girdles attached to images of our Ladye were also known
as "

our Ladye s girdles."

There another girdle of our Ladye at Prato, in

is also

Tuscany, which never was at Constantinople, and which is

wholly distinct from the girdle of our Ladye in the Chalcopra-
181
teion, but Mrs. Jameson has confused the one with the other.

legendary history is briefly this. It purports to be the

Its

girdle which our Ladye is said to have let fall to St. Thomas at
her Assumption. 182
This legend is pronounced utterly apocryphal by St. Antonine
of Florence, 183 Molanus, 184 Baronius, 185 and others. 186 Neverthe
less, in the large engraving of the Assumption which faces the
Office of the festival in the Dominican Breviary, printed at
178
S. p. 2. I can find no trace of any convent at Aston. In France the care
of the Ladye altars is intrusted to three maidens, who are called Les Rtines de Notre

Dame. Cf. Haignere, Hist, dc N. D. de J3oiilogiu>, p. 283. Was "abbess" the

English name for those who fulfilled this duty?
179 S. p. 268.
180
S. p. 307.
181
Legends of the Madonna, pp. 344 347. Edit. 1852.
82
Cf. Notizie istoriche intorno alia sacratissima cintola dl
Maria Virgitie, eke si con-
sert a ndla di Prato in Toscana descrittc dal Doltore
citta
Giuseppe Bianchini, di Prato.
183
Historiarum, p. 3, tit. 8, c. 4, parag. 2, quoted by Locri ubi infra.
184
C. 73, quoted by Locri.
185
Ad ann. 48.
186
Locri says :
Dimisit, scilicet, in coelos scandens Diva, cingulum, atque in
BeatiThomse manus delapsum est incredulitatis, quod a morte Dei Filius surrexisset,
;

mnemosynon futurum. Id figmentum est, nee tolerandum adeoque a B. Antonino, ;

Molano, Baronio, aliisque ex pictorum officina recte explosum. Affero Antonini, ut

antiquioris, verba a Molano repetita Nee etiam, scribit, laudandi sunt pictores, aim
:

Apocrypha pingunt ; ut obstetrices in partu Virginis ; et 77ioai(C Apostolo cingulttm

suitm a Virgine Maria, in Assumptione sua,
propter dubitationem dimissttm (Maria
Augusta, lib. v. c. 17, p. 520). Locri was parish priest of St. Nicholas at Arras, and
his work is dedicated to his Bishop, John Richardot. Peter de Natalibus who
composed his Cataloqtis Sanctorum between 1369 and 1372 it was finished on the
26th of May of that year says : Thoma qui abfuit, et
Quod autem dicitur de
resurrectionem virginis credere voluit ;
zonamque ipsius ex acre delapsam recepit :

delusorium et frivolum reputatur (lib. vii.

cap. Ixv. fol. 193. Lugduni, 1508). At
fol. 193 he says that the
story is found in an apocryphal book ascribed to St. the John
Evangelist. But the Golden Legends mention it under the heading of the Assumption.
 Relics. 93

Venice in 1514, our Ladye is represented as giving her girdle to

St. Thomas, who is on a hillock raised above the eleven other
187
Apostles.
The learned John Chrysostomc Trombelli has carefully
examined the history of the girdle at Prato, as set forth by
Bianchini. He fully admits the authenticity of the Constanti
nople girdle, and that relics of it have been brought to various
churches in Europe, but he considers that the Prato girdle is
only a sanctified relic which has touched or contains a thread of
the precious girdle of Constantinople. 188 But Bianchini mentions
an instance of a girdle which had been made, and had touched
the zona at Prato. 189 Thus there is evidence of the practice of
multiplying girdles of our Ladye, which became "sanctified"
relics and this custom gives the explanation of the many
;

"girdles of the Blessed Virgin."

should also be borne in mind that pilgrims have long been

It

accustomed to carry away pieces of the veils of venerated images

of our Ladye. Even the relics of our Ladye s hair might, in
some cases, be so explained. Statues of our Ladye which were
robed had also false hair; and the "cootes, cappe, and here"
of our Ladye of Caversham are mentioned. 190 Veils of our
Ladye of Loreto have been cut into pieces, and distributed, for
years; and in the year 1749, Benedict the Fourteenth issued
a Bull on the subject, by which, in order to prevent any
controversy or dispute, the three priests cnstodcs were alone
empowered to put on to the image of our Ladye the new veils,
them off, and
to take to authenticate them. The authentications
are to bear only the print of our Ladye, and the writing. No
money is to be taken for them on pain of suspension. The
Penitentiaries are also allowed to distribute them, but the
attesting paper must be signed by their rector. 191
187
Fol. 315 b.
188
De reliquiis B. Virginis Mari<e, sect. iii.
capp. i. ii.

183
Notizie, &c. p. 43.
190
S. p. ii.
181 Bullarium Benedicti PP. XIV. torn. iii. 54. On relics of our Blessed Ladye,
Cf. Fereol Locri, Maria Augusta.
Atrebati, 1608, lib. v. cap. xix. xlvi. pp. 5 21

567 ;
Invcntaire dcs Sacrtes Reliqnes de Noslre Dame, par le R. P. Antoine de
Balinghem, S.J. Douay, 1626 ; Ferrando, Disquisitio Rdiquiaria ; Surius, ad xxxi.
Aug. ; B. P. Canisius, S.J., De Beata Maria Virgine Incomparabili et Dei Genilrict.
Ingolstadii, 1577, lib. v. cap. xxiii. ; Joan. Bonifacius, S.J., De Diva Virginis
Maria vita et miraculis, Colonia;, 1628, lib. ii.
cap. ix. pp. 289 294 ; Trombelli,
De reliquiis B. Virginis Maria.
 CHAPTER THE SECOND.
Associations.

i. GILDS.

MANY Gilds are mentioned in the Series. I do not believe that

in the ages of faith there existed a single church or parish in
1
England which had not one or more Gilds.
These brotherhoods had their origin in England, and in the
time of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers they existed in the days ;

2
of Ine, A.D. 688 ;25.
They may be divided into two classes :
(i) Secular, (2)

Religious; and the former may be subdivided into

(i) Frith

Gilds; (2) Merchant Gilds, which were the origin of our municipal
corporations (3) Trade or Craft Gilds, which are represented
;

by our civic companies.

Now one common
feature in all the English Gilds was, that

quite irrespective of the particular object for which they were

instituted, certain religious observances were invariably enforced
by their statutes the principal of which were (i) The celebra
;
:

tion of the Gild-festival, and of Holy Mass at the Gild-altar by

the Gild-chaplain ; (2) compulsory attendance of the brethren
and sisters, under pain of a fine of wax tapers, or a small sum
of money ; (3) the burial of the dead ; (4) prayers for the dead ;
and the keeping of the obits of the deceased members.
(5)
Thus, although all Gilds were not instituted solely for religious
objects, the observance of religious duties formed an essential
3
portion of their statutes.
1
For the derivation of the name, see Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 395,
and the English Gilds, published by the Early English Text Society, vol. xl. pp. xiv.
xvi. Ixi.
2
Ancient La iVS and Institutes of England. Edit. Thorpe, pp. 16 21.
3
The volume of the constitutions of more than a hundred of the old English Gilds
was prepared by the late Mr. Toulmin Smith, on whose premature death the final
editorship devolved upon his accomplished daughter, Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith,
 Gilds. 95

Every Gild had its chaplain.

4
The Latin Christ s Book or
Gospels written by an Anglo-Saxon scribe, which formerly
belonged to Sherborne, and is now preserved at York, contains
the Anglo-Saxon Bidding prayer, in which Gilds and Gild
priests are enumerated :
"

]?ittan J?e gebiddan . . .

for, ure gildan

7 gilds preostra."
Moreover, in the Canons enacted under King Eadgar, a
priest is forbidden to deprive another of anything, either "in

5
his minster, his shrift-shire, or his gild schipe." If, however,

as sometimes was the case, trade Gilds did not keep a Gild-priest,

whose valuable introduction is for general readers the most interesting portion of the

book. ThePresident of the Society, Mr. Furnivall, who has added some notes, and
Mr. Toulmin Smith object to any Gilds being called "religious," they prefer the term
"social;" they discussed the subject together, and their united wisdom on the subject
is thus recorded by Mr. Furnivall "To have called them
:
religious, because of their
ornament of a name, would have seemed to him and me a monstrous contra
saint s

diction, in the days of Chaucer and Wycliffe, of William, who had the vision of Piers
the Plowman, and others who have left us records of what Romanism, with its monks
and friars, practically then was in England" (English Gilds, p. Ixxxvii. note l).
Mr. Furnivall caused to be inserted in this volume a learned essay on the subject of
Gilds by Lujo Brentano, of Aschaffenburg, I.U.D. et Phil, a Catholic gentleman, but
Miss Toulmin Smith adds "that this gentleman had no communication whatever
with my father, to whom he was quite unknown, and who therefore will not be held
responsible for views differing much on some points from his own" (Ibid. p. xiv.
note i). Dr. Brentano, very properly, retains the correct appellation of "religious"
for some Gilds, a fact not pleasing to Mr. Furnivall, as Dr. Brentano has recorded
in a supplemental passage when he says, "as Mr. Furnivall thought that my reasons
(for sodoing) were to be sought for in connection with the fact of my being a Roman
Catholic, and as he has even asked im to state this fact to my readers, in order to
caution them against any prejudices, I wish only, while doing this, to add a few words
more on the real reasons for calling these Gilds religious
"

(Ibid. p. Iviii.). The

italics are mine. Therefore, according to Mr. Furnivall, a Catholic archaeologist is
unfit to write on Catholic institutions, and Catholic matters, and these can be more

ably described and explained by Protestants, imbued with Protestant prejudices, whose
I may remark that reference is
writings are disfigured by ignorance and bigotry.
made several times to Dr. Rock, yet the Church of our Fathers gives many documents
about Gilds, which are fatal to some of the assertions and inferences contained in the
"English Gilds,"
and it is no wonder, therefore, that they should have been passed
over unnoticed.
4
Miss Toulmin Smith has noted, in her introduction, that the Gild of the
Annunciation at Cambridge "excludes priests altogether" (English Gilds, p. xxix.).
The statutes will not bear out this assertion. The Latin original is nullus capellanus
. in dicta gildd rccipiatnr, which Mr. Toulmin Smith construes: "No parson
. .

shall come into the Gild." Parson, "persona, is the old term used in England,
"

. . .

in the ages of faith, for a priest ; but in this instance of the Cambridge Gild, capellanus

evidently applies to a priest who is already a "chaplain" of some other Gild or

institution.
8
Ancient Laws, &c. Edit, Thorpe, vol. ii.
p. 247.
96 Associations.

they paid a sum of money to have a daily remembrance, or

made Mass and dead.
"

at for all their

"

certain members, living

Thus the Valor Ecclesiasticus mentions "the certent of iii.gylds."

Every Gild, also, had its own arrangements in regard of its

general meetings they took place once, or thrice, or oftener in

;

the year. This was the ceremonial observed. They assembled

in their Gild-hall, and then went to the church, in which they
had their chapel, or altar, at which Holy Mass was celebrated
by the Gild-priest. Then the general meeting the Mornspeche,
or the spekyng to-gedyr was held, which generally began with
7
a prayer, such as five Paters and five Avcs and then the affairs ;

of the Gild were discussed, and arranged for the year, after which
8
the members had a refection together in the Gild-hall, and on
the following morning the Mass of Requiem was celebrated. The
allowances of ale and other items were generally fixed by the
statutes ;
and it was at these festive meetings that the poculum
cJiaritatis,or grace cup, or loving cup, was passed round the
9
festive board.
The English Gilds were invariably placed under the protec
tion of our Blessed Ladye or some saint and in those Gilds ;

which bear the name of a saint, our Ladye is usually included

amongst those to whose honour, or under whose guardianship
the Gild was established. 10 This is fully proved by the nine

6
Cf. torn. vi. p. iv. For the meaning of "certain," cf. Rock, Church ofour Fathers,
vol. iii.
pp. 126 -131. May not "certain" have taken its name from a "certain sum "

of money being left for the object. Thus in the tale of the Chanons yemen, the
Chanon came upon a daie
Unto this priestes chamber, where he laie
Beseching him to lene him a certain
Of gold . . .

(Chaucer, Opp. Edit. 1602, fol. 59).

7
English Gilds, p. 37.
8
Ibid, passim. Cf. Brentano, ibid. p. Ixxxii. ; and Labbe, torn. viii. col. 572.
Edit. cit. For the Eulogia, cf. Labbe, torn. i. col. 1523, 1524; and Rock, Church
of our Fathers, vol. i. pp. 135 139.
9 The
caritas, or a single draught of wine, in pledge of mutual kindness was in
use with our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. Want of space allows me only to refer to it,
but full and most interesting details are given by Rock, Church of our Fathers,
vol. ii.
pp. 335342.
10
Mr. Toulmin Smith thought that he had succeeded in finding a Gild which was
an exception to this general rule in the Gild of the Smiths of Chesterfield (English
Gilds, p. 1 68, note), but it seems to have escaped his notice that it had already
become incorporated with the Gild of the Holy Cross of the Merchants of Chesterfield
in 1387, consequently, any previous title which it
might have borne had merged into
the new one (see Dr, Brentano s note, p. Ixxxiii.).
 Gilds. 97

hundred and nine Gilds which existed in Norfolk alone, and of

which one hundred and seventy-seven were Gilds of our Ladye. 11
Some Gilds were founded solely for religious purposes, such
as the Salve Gild in the Church of St. Magnus near London
Bridge, so called because the members assembled together every
1*
evening to sing the Salve Regi/ia. Stow particularly mentions
that most other churches had theirs, i.e. Salve Gilds and ;

legacies of candles were often left to burn before the image of

our Ladye, whilst the Salve was being sung. 13 The object of
the Gild, called the Little Fraternity of our Ladye, in the Church
of St. Stephen, Colcman Street, was to provide candles to burn
before the image of our Ladye in that church. 14
15
At Bodmin there was a Gilde of our Ladye of Walsingham.
At Carbrooke Magna the Gild of our Ladye had its chapel,
10
and maintained a priest to sing there. At Caston the Gild of
our Ladye kept a light constantly burning before her image 17 ;

as likewise did the Ladye Gild at Cheveley, 18 and the Ladye

Gild at Griston. 19 The Gild of the Annunciation had its altar
20
in St. Paul The Drapers Company
s, London. its maintained
21
Ladye-light in St. Marye Woolchurch and Sir Simon Eyre, ;

a famous merchant, and Mayor of London in 1445, made a rich

endowment for a Gild of our Ladye in the Church of St. Marye
Woolnoth. 22 The Gild of our Ladye at Lynn was founded in
I329-
23
In the Church of St. Andrew s, Norwich, there was a
Gild of Our Ladye of Grace. 24 At Oxford, the Gild of the
Cordwainers built the chapel of our Ladye in the Church of
All Hallows 25 and the barbers of Oxford, on their incorpora
;

tion, agreed to keep a light before our Ladye Chapel, in the

Priory of St. Frideswithe, and fixed the sum which each member
should contribute during the year. 20 The object of the Ladye
Gild at Silverton was to find a Gild-priest to pray for its
members and its benefactors. 27 At Tottington the Gild of the
Nativity of our Ladye kept a candle burning continually before
28
her image during the time of Divine Service.

11
S. p. 2. I inadvertently stated the number as one hundred and seventy-eight.
12 13 "

S. pp. 87, 88. S. p. 115. S. p. 89.

15 1B I7
S. p. 9. Ibid.
Lysons, Magna Britannia, Cornwall, p. 35.
13 ]9 20
S. p. 15. S. p. 50. S. p. 73-
21 22 24
S. p. 77. Ibid. S. p. 99. S. p. 108.
25 26 -1 I8
S. p. 119, Ibid. S. p. 139. S. p. 152.

h
98 Associations.

These few instances, which are taken from all parts of

England, are quite sufficient to prove what was the universal
custom with the secular Gilds at least.
All the possessions of the thousands of Gilds in England,
became vested in the Crown by the Acts of the 37th Henry the

Eighth cap. 4, and of the 1st Edward the Sixth, cap. 14. The
great Livery Companies of London escaped, being trading Gilds,
and the Corporations of London had to redeem their property
with ,i8,7OO. 29 The act of spoliation Mr. Toulmin Smith
describes as a case of pure, wholesale robbery and plunder,
"

done by an unscrupulous faction to satisfy their personal greed,

30
under cover of the In another place he says that "the
law."

unprincipled courtiers, who had devised and helped the scheme,

gorged themselves out of this wholesale plunder of what was,
in every sense, public He thinks, however, that for
property."
31

the seizing of the property of monasteries some excuse can be

made. Monasteries in truth were quite as much public property
as Gilds, in fact, even more so and it should be borne in mind:

that the only evidence against the religious houses is the report
of Cromwell, who was employed to provide a cause for confiscation;
but the original printed copies were destroyed before the death
of Henry the Eighth, and the six versions of the report still
extant, and each professing to be the original, all differ in most
32
important details.
What the monasteries did on a large scale, the Gilds did on
a smaller one and in a different sphere ; still acts of
charity to
their neighbours and the poor of Christ, and prayers for deceased
members and benefactors, were common to both. Parkins, the
continuator of Blomefield, speaking of the suppression of the
Gilds at Tebenham, one of which was of our Ladye, says But :
"

as the poor of the parish were always partakers with them, I

much question whether their revenues were not better spent
than they have been since they were rapaciously seized from
the parishes to which they of right belonged."
33
The same

29
Brentano, English Gilds, p. clxiii.
30
English Gilds, p. xlii. note I.
31
Ibid. p. xliii.
a2
See a most interesting little book, The Monastic Houses of England ; and their
accusers and defenders. By S. II. B. pp. i, 2. London: Richardson and Son, 1869.
33
Iffst. of Norfolk, sub. nom.
 The Sodality. 99

might, with greater justice, be said of the monasteries and

convents.

2. THE SODALITY.
The Great Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Marye Mother
of God does not, strictly, come within the limits I had laid
down nevertheless, as it had a brief
; existence in England
inthe latter part of the seventeenth century in the College
of the Society of Jesus in the Savoy, London, 31 it deserves
to be appended to the list of old English Catholic devotions
to our Ladye.
The Sodality of the Blessed Virgin may be called the
special devotion of the Society of Jesus, just as the White
Friars confer the Scapular, and the Black Friars propagate the
Psalter of our Ladye, and the Passionists, devotion to the
Passion of Christ crucified. In every College of the Society
there is a Sodality.
The Society of Jesus cannot but be devoted in an especial
and pre-eminent manner to the Blessed Mother of Jesus, our
God and Lord and a reference to De Backer 35 will show how
;

many works the Fathers of that illustrious Society have written

in her honour and praise. It was divinely revealed to Blessed

Alphonsus Rodriguez, that one of the objects for which the

Society had been instituted was to obtain the promulgation
of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. 30
This is, briefly, the history of the origin of the Sodality.
Father John Leon, born at Liege, was admitted into the
Society at Rome; in 1563 he taught grammar in the Roman
College.
Each day, he assembled the most pious of the
after schools,

scholars, selected from his own and the other classes, around
a little altar which he had erected in honour of our Blessed

34 In the Catholic Miscellany for the year 1825 a "Constant Reader" inquires:
"

In what part of London was the Sodality of our Ladye of Power held, of which
Lord Cardigan was Prefect?" (vol. iv. p. 126). The query was not answered.
Lord Cardigan probably was Robert Brudenell, second Earl Cardigan, 1664 1703.
I have found no mention of this Sodality, and Rev. Father Morris, S.J., tells me
that he knows nothing of it. Ita ad me, February 26, 1876.
35
Cf. Ecrivains de la Cotnpagnie dejcsits. Second Edition.
36
Ant. Natali, S.J. De Ccclesti Convcrsatione. Brunre, 1721, p. 251.
ioo Associations.

Ladye, to say a few prayers, and to make a spiritual reading

incommon. On Sundays and festival days they sang Vespers.
It soon became noticed that these spiritual pupils of Father
Leon were remarkable for their virtuous conduct and example ;

others sought
they became models of good behaviour, and many
to join this In 1568 a few very simple rules for its
little body.
of the Sovereign
organization were drawn up with the approval
Pontiff; and in 1584, Gregory the Thirteenth,
on hearing of
the excellent results of this Sodality or Congregation, and of
the good example which the members universally gave, issued
the Bull Omnipotcntis Dei, December 5, 1584, which established
this Sodality in the Church of the Annunciation of the Roman

College,and under the same title, and granted many privileges

and indulgences. It was named the Mother Sodality or Prima
Primaria?1 of all the other Sodalities erected or to be erected.
Passing over the other Papal Bulls relating to the Sodality,
it is only necessary to say that on the 2;th of September, 1748,

Benedict the Fourteenth issued what is called the Golden Bull,

Gloriosce Domince. In virtue of this Bull, the altar of every
Sodality is a privileged one for every priest, secular or regular,
who says Mass there for a deceased Sodalist. Moreover, every
priest who is a Sodalist can say
Mass with the same privilege
for a deceased Sodalist at any altar in any church.
The Sodality of our Blessed Ladye at Stonyhurst is a
branch of the Prima Primaria, and represents that affiliation
which was established in the English College of the Society
of Jesus at Louvain, about the year 1617. The College began
in 1613, and was removed to Liege in 1622. The first Prefect
was Sir Thomas Leeds, Knight of the Bath the second Sir ;

Ralph Babthorpe ;
and the third Dr. Horton, a secular priest
who subsequently entered the novitiate of the Society. 38
The suppression of the Society in 1773 did not affect it,
for the ex-members, who continued to hold the College under
the name of the English Academy, kept up the Sodality until

37
This is the inscription over the doors of the Prima Primaria in the Roman
College :

PRIMA PRIMARIA
CONGREGATIO
OMNIVM CONGREGATIONVM
*

TOTO ORBE DIFFUSARVM

MATER ET CAPVT.
38
Ita ad me, Rev. Father Morris, S.J.
 The Sodality. 101

they were driven out of Liege in 1794, in which year they came
to England, and established themselves at Stonyhurst Con
sequently the Stonyhurst Sodality, tracing an unbroken descent
from the year 1617, is, perhaps, the oldest existing branch in
the world of the Prima Primariaf*
Whenever I revisit our venerable Alma Mater, it is always
a subject of grief to me that the old Sodality chapel exists no
longer as a sanctuary of our Blessed Ladye. There were, doubt
less, good reasons for the change. Nevertheless it was a
hallowed spot, dear to many who have gone before us with
the seal of faith, It was the great
and sleep the sleep of peace.
College sanctuary was, so
;
to
itsay, of ancestral interest, and
associated with the fasti of many of the old Catholic families
which, yet existing in unbroken male line, have had the glorious
privilege of surviving the days of persecution, and of being the
connecting links in the chain of faith between the old and the
restored English Church we knelt at our dear Ladye s altar,
;

on the step whereon our fathers, and even our grandfathers,

had knelt before us, when we solemnly consecrated ourselves
to her service, as they before us had done it had a sort of ;

hallowed atmosphere, such as one experiences at Loreto, at

Einsiedlen, and in the chapel of our Ladye dclla Strada in the
Gesu at Rome. As was said of the Chapel of Allinges, so might
have been said of it Poor and plain, simple to ruggedness,
:
"

naked to austerity, dark and lone was that chapel there . . .

was about it the same peculiarity that has been noticed about
other places of frequent pilgrimage and constant devotion. The
walls seem to be impregnated with and redolent of prayer :

there appears to be a whisper of prayer breathing around the

place, and the walls seem

to give out and to surround you
with an atmosphere of prayer . . . the very stones appear to
have been mesmerized by the power of human supplication, and
to cry to one, as one enters, Great is the power of prayer, great
"

the peace to be obtained here by prayer.

I admit that the old Sodality chapel was irregular in form,

contains the copy of

Sodality Register Books at Stonyhurst
s9 One of the old

a letter from the Rev. Father Thorpe to the Rev. Father Howard, which gives the
history of the legitimate continuation of our Sodality.
The letter is dated September 5,
sine anno, but was written some lime after 1773-
40
Month) vol. iv. p. 40.
 IO2 Associations.

and somewhat inconvenient in other respects, but these very

irregularities added to the hallowed interest which haunted it,
because they carried one back to the days of the Penal Laws,
and, in imagination, almost to the "Church of the Hiding
Places." How many vocations to a religious life date from that
chapel ? How many lives have
been wholly influenced and
guided by the advice given in that chapel, and the resolutions
made before our Ladye s altar, and faithfully carried out ?
It is the rule for the English Sodalists to recite daily either
the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception or the beads ;

and on Sundays and holidays to sing the longer office, called

Ojficium Parvum B.M. V. I look back with joy and gladness

to my
happy College days as a Sodalist the chanting of the ;

hours of our Ladye seems to me more melodious than

any
41
minstrelsy I have ever heard perhaps it was that those who
:

then sang were innocentes manibus et mundo cordc ; and although

years have rolled by, and good fellows have passed away, and
tongues, which then sang our Ladye s praises, are now mute
in the grave, the echo of what Dante calls

The sweet strain of psalmody,

of the dear old Sodality chapel, still rings in my ears as I am

penning these words ; friends and schoolfellows now scattered
over the wide world, or

Carried into Heaven s light,

appear before me once more in their accustomed places, and I

seem to myself to be a Sodalist again, at Alma Mater. And if
be that dying men see, in ictu oculi,
displayed before them
it

the book of their whole lives, in which their every word and
action are set down, what a consolation to a
dying Sodalist
if he has proved himself
worthy of the name must be that
white page, standing out clearly before his
memory, in which
is recorded the
day arid the hour of his solemn consecration to
our Ladye, every day since then remembered and
daily repeated
according to his rule. And how great will be the peace of his
soul, as for the last time, with failing utterance, but with his

41
Thomas, thirtieth Abbot of St. Albans, A.D. 13491396, is described as
ntultnm gaudens modulations suornm monachorum
"

quibns aslimabat optimos cantores

cotnparari non posse" (Gala Abbatuiit Monast. S. Albani, vol. ii. p. 401, Rolls Edit.).
 The Sodality. 103

stout English heart, he invokes our Ladye in the words of Holy

Church

Maria Mater gratia

Dulcis Parens dementia
Tu nos ab hoste protege
Et mortis Jiora suscipe.

There is a Sodality in the Colleges of Mount St. Marye s,

of St. Stanislaus, Beaumont, and of St. Francis Xavier s, Liver
pool, and one was established some years ago at Farm Street,
London. One entry in the Fasti of the Sodality at Stonyhurst
shows how highly its membership was valued. The late Mr.
Peter Middelton of Stockeld Park, who during a long life was
conspicuous for his piety, was admitted into the Sodality at
Stonyhurst on the 8th of December, 1798. Several years later,
he applied to have his name again inscribed on the Roll, and
his reason is set forth in the book. Eodcin die (8 Dec.) Doin.
Petrus Middelton, olim hujus collegii alumnus, pic timcns nc inter
noinina sodalinm ipsius nomcn fucrit omissum, in desiderio Jiabuit
itcrum inscribi ; sit igitur. PETRUS MIDDELTON, SERVUS
PERPETUUS B.M.V. Every Sodalist, on admission, signs his
name on the Roll as Servus Perpetuus Bcatce Maries Virginis.
It cannot be denied that Stonyhurst has received signal and

manifest proofs of our Ladye s favour and protection. There

was a sad period, many years ago, when discord and disaffection
arose mischievous spirits were at work, and authority was set
;

at defiance. If a mistaken act of kindness had not led to the

violation of one of the principal conditions of admission to the

College, the evil would have been insignificant. I may allude

to this period, since unfortunately it was of public notoriety.

There was serious cause for apprehension, as the welfare and
reputation of the College were at stake. It was an anxious time.
Venerable Fathers of the Society, held to be experienced in
government, were summoned to the rescue but with varying
;

success, for ever and anon the flames of disaffection burst forth

again. was disheartening. Then a young Father, blithe of

It

mood, yet stedfast and resolute, over whose placid brow thirty-
nine winters had not passed, was named Rector, and the result
proved the wisdom of his nomination. the right man
He was
in the right place. The clouds disappeared, the storm blew
1
04 Associations.

over ;
his nomination was the dawn of a day of brilliant sun
shine. Esto perpetua !
But how was this change brought about ? Wherein lay the
secret of his success ?

Father Rector was a devout Sodalist, who could say what

Justus Lipsius wrote of himself: A prima adolescentia Dives
Virginis ainorem et cultum indui, eainque Patronam mild et
ducem in periculis, in molestiis, in omni vitce cursu elegi.^ What
wonder, then, that our Ladye should have chosen him to be
her especial champion ? Evidence is not wanting to confirm
this belief. Born upon one of her great festivals, his name
stands forth in single and grand pre-eminence in the annals of
our Sodality, for during his college career he was five times
elected its Prefect by the Sodalists.
William of Malmesbury, writing of Abbot ^Elfric about the
date 947, says : Hie est
ALlfricus qui omnem cnram ad Beatam
transferens Mariam, possessionem ct notnen monasterii ejus dclc-

gavit ditioni, ut, tacito interim beatissimi Petris nomine, ipsa sola
loco videatur impcrare. Nee fastidivit gloriosa Domina illustris
et prczdicandi viri munns.^ Even so did Father Rector. He
placed the College of Stonyhurst under the especial protection
of our Blessed Ladye and one of his first acts was to erect, in
;

what was then Gallery," a statue of our

called the "Dancing
Blessed Ladye. It was a plain image of plaster, and stood on
a simple bracket of stained wood affixed to the wall, not far
from the door of the Sodality chapel yet it was the first image ;

of our Ladye that hitherto had been erected in any public part
of the College. What a sudden change ensued and certainly !

not wrought by the hand of man In this gallery, thenceforth

!

named after our Ladye, and which had been the scene of the
last manifestation of disaffection I remember well the day and
the hour there might constantly be seen, kneeling on the bare
stones, Sodalists and others, who habitually, and of their own
accord, resorted thither on their way to schools or to recreation
to greet our Ladye with an Ave, and perhaps to offer a candle
to her.

This, then, was the origin of the sanctuary now put up in

our Ladye s gallery, and in which her venerated image is placed
43
Diva Virgo Hallens is. Antv. Ex Off. Plantin, 1616, cap. i.
43
Degutis Pontificwn Angl. vol. v. p. 405. Rolls Edit.
 The Sodality. 105

marble tabernacle, raised some years later. And

in its beautiful
from the date of the erection of that poor and simple statue, the
history of the College is a series of success, prosperity, and
triumph. Truly our Blessed Ladye loves those who love her,
and repays with heavy interest whatsoever is done in her honour.
Several years have passed since the old Sodality chapel has
been disused and it is possible that in a year or two hence the
;

shrine of our Ladye may be removed to a more noble and

spacious locality. Hence, for every reason, the old Sodality

chapel and our Ladye s gallery and shrine at Stonyhurst deserve
a place amongst these records.

THE "ENFANTS DE MARIE," OR CHILDREN OF MAR YE,

In many convents there are congregations or confraternities
of our Blessed Ladye, the members of which are called Enfants
de Marie, or Children of Maryc ;
in Italian, Figlic di Maria.
Those which are erected by a diploma of the General of the
Society of Jesus are branches of the great Prima Primaria
Sodality, and enjoy all the privileges and indulgences attached
to it, in common with all other Sodalists. A distinction, there
fore, must be made between the Enfants de Marie, or Lady-
Sodalists, who are affiliated to the Prima Primaria, and those
Enfants de Marie who are members of some local or conventual
confraternity which has no connection with the Prima Primaria.
On the /th of January, 1837, the Congregation or Associa
tion of the Figlie di Maria, erected in the Convent of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Convent of the Trinita de Monti
at Rome, was affiliated to the Prima Primaria in the Roman
41
College. The Sodality of Girls erected at St. Maryc s,

Hampstead, was affiliated to the Prima Primaria by Letters

of Aggregation of the General of the Society of Jesus, dated
Rome, December 5, 1874.

44
Regale della Congrfgazione delle Figlic di Maria che vivono in mezzo al sccolo,
Roma: Typ. A. Monaldi, 1844, p. 21.
 CHAPTER THE THIRD.
Devotions and Good Works.
I. PILGRIMAGES. PROCESSIONS. ALMS. FASTING.

O Benigna
Mediatrix nostra
Once es post Deiiin spcs sola
Tno Filio nos rcprccscnta
Ut in poli aula Icetijiibileinus. Allcluya.
Missal of Arbuthnot. 1

PILGRIMAGES.
PILGRIMAGES, which are now so well understood in consequence
of theirhappy revival in England, were a favourite form of
devotion with our forefathers. The Servitimn Pcregrinorum,
that is, the form of the blessing of the staff, and the pilgrim

Mass, is given in the Sarum Manuale? Heretics, have always

manifested their especial dislike to the practice of them. Thus,
about the year 1389, the Wiclefites "preched openly ageyn
pilgrimage, and specially Walsingham and the rode of north
dore. 3 The bischopps of this lond saide right nowt to this
but kept hem in here houses, and opened no mouth to berk
ageyn these erroneous doggis."
4
The Lollards maintained
that God is lyk presentli everywhere, and therefore he is lyk
"

readi for to 3eve hise gracis and 3iftis everywhere, where ever
a man sechith after hem and therefore no place in erthe is
;

holier than an other place is, and noon ymage is. Wherefore
it is a vein waast and idil for to trotte to
Wa(l)singham rather
than to ech other place in which an ymage of Marie is, and
to the rode of the north dore at London rather then to ech

1
Reprint, p. 352. Burntisland, 1864.
2
Rothomagi, 1509 ff. liiii Iviii ; cf. also the Sarum Missal.
8
The rood at the north door of St. Paul s, London. S. p. 70,
4
Capgrave, Chronicle of England, p. 252. Rolls Edit,
 Pilgrimages. 107
5
other roode in what ever place he be."
Cranmer, as might
6
readily be supposed, adopted similar views.
The great and unceasing stream of pilgrims to the Holy
Places, and to the Tomb of the Apostles at Rome, commenced
almost with the dawn of Christianity. Other great sanctuaries
in the course of time became famous, as St. Martin of Tours,
and St. James of Compostella. The Irish were particularly
conspicuous for their love of pilgrimages. Walfrid Strabo
says that their custom of going on pilgrimages was almost
a second nature, 7 and Richmarch, in the Life of St. David,
speaks of their insatiable ardour of making pilgrimages. 8 Their
faith was strong, yet it must be admitted that their zeal led
them to undertake pilgrimages in a somewhat reckless manner,
and occasionally without any apparent definite object, provided,
as the Saxon Chronicle says, "they were in a state of
pilgrimage
for the love of God." Under the year 892 it records that :

Three Scots came to King Alfred in a boat without any

"

oars from Ireland, whence they had stolen away, because

they
desired, for the love of God, to be in a state ofpilgrimage, they
recked not where. The boat in which they came was wrought
of two and a half hides, and they took with them food for
seven nights, and on the seventh night they came to land in
Cornwall, and they went straightways to King Alfred. Thus
were they named, Dubslane, Macbetha, and Maclinmum." 9
Pilgrims were held in reverence. Charlemagne wrote to
Offa, King of the Mercians, freeing English pilgrims on their
way to the Liuiina Apostoloruin from all tolls and customs. 10
In Ireland the law protected from distress a member of a tribe
who had gone on pilgrimage, or to obtain Holy Communion
or a physician for a person on the point of death. 11 In the

5
The Represser of over-much blaming of the Clergy, By Reginald Peacock, D.D.,
sometime Lord Bishop of Chichester, vol. i. p. 194. Rolls Edit.
6
S.p.57.
7
In vita S. Gall. lib. ii. cap. xlvi ; Gretzer, t. iv. pt. ii. p. 69.
8
Insatiabilis ardor peregrinandi (Gretzer, Ibid.)
u
Ad ann. 892. Rolls Edit. These wandering pilgrimages
on sea were not
unusual in Ireland.For the expedition of the sons of the Corra and the wandering
pilgrimage of Snedhgns and MacRiaghla in the seventh or early in the eighth
century See O Curry, Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish Hist, Dublin,
1 86 1, pp. 292, 293, 333.
10
Gretzer, t. iv. pt. ii.
p. 86.
11
Senchns Mor. p. 267. Rolls Edit,
io8 Devotions and Good Works.

year 1399 an Englishman was taken prisoner by the French

soldiers at Cahors, but immediately set at liberty when they
discovered that he was on pilgrimage to Our Ladye of Roc-
Amadour. 12 The English acted in like manner in regard to
pilgrims ;
but to insure this international privilege it was
13
necessary towear one of the pilgrim signs of Roc-Amadour.
A proof of the multitude of pilgrims from Great Britain
and Ireland who crossed the Channel into France, was the
establishment of a special cemetery for them at Wissant about
the year H3O. U Wissant is a little to the east of Cape Gris-Nez.
The Pilgrimages of Devotion may be divided into two
classes :
(i) Greater ones to sanctuaries across the sea, or in
distant countries ; (2) lesser ones to some sanctuaries nearer
home ;
and these were common to all classes. Then there
were also vicarious pilgrimages, made by deputy to sanctuaries
both at home and abroad and these differ from spiritual
;

pilgrimages often made by religious communities which have

inclosure.
In the Council of Calne, A.D. 978, it was decreed that it

should be lawful for the people to make pilgrimages to

15
St.Marye of Abingdon. The English royal pilgrims to Our
Ladye of Walsingham are given under that name in the Series.
Henry the Second, on recovering from a severe illness,
went on pilgrimage, as he had vowed, to Our Ladye of Roc-
10
Amadour, in i i/o, or according to Robert du Mont in 1171.
Henry the Third visited the Sanctuary of Our Ladye of
17
Boulogne. Edward the Second went to Our Ladye of
18
Boulogne, where he was married. After his victory off Sluys
Edward the Third went on pilgrimage to Our Ladye of Arden-
10
berg.
Many of the sanctuaries of our which pilgrimages
Ladye to
were made were little out-of-the-way chapels. Leland records
12
Hist, Critique et religieusc de Notre Dante de Roc-Amadour. Par A. B. Caillu.
Paris, 1834, p. 113.
ia
Forgeais, Collection de Plonibs Histories, Paris, 1863, pp. 52 60.
14
Hist, de N. Dame de Boulogne. Par le R. P. Alphonse de Montfort, Capucin.
Paris, 1634, pp. 67, 68.
15
S. p. i.

16
Roger de Hoveden, Annales, Ad arm. 11701
17
Haignere, Hist, de N. Dame de Boulogne. Boulogne, 1864, p. 41.
18
Le Roy, Histoire de N, Dame de Boulogne. Paris 1682, p. j 54.
19
S. p. 257.
 Pilgrimages. 1 09

that not far from Edon Water is a village

"

cawlled Burgham,
and ther a gret pilgrimage to our Ladye."
is
2
To the little
chapel of Our Ladye of Caversham there wasse great pilgrem-
"

21
age."
At Newcastle-on-Tyne, Pilgrim Street still records
22
the piety of our ancestors. Near Liskeard, in a wood, there
was a chapel of our Ladye, our Ladye in the Park,
"caullid

where was wont to be gret pilgrimage."

23
At Norwich there
was our Ladye atte Oke, or of the Oak, so named because her
24
image was placed in an oak tree, a practice which
is still

so common in Catholic countries. Near Southampton the

25
chapel of Our Ladye of Grace was "hauntid with pilgrimes,"

whilst fame of Southwick stoode by the Priory of the

"the
2
Blake Chanons there, and a pilgrimage to our Ladye." Indeed,
it is very probable that other towns besides Walsingham owed
much of their prosperity to the pilgrimages to sanctuaries of
our Blessed Ladye.
It was by no means unusual to make a vow of pilgrimage
for the recovery of a sick friend or relative. Thus, on
September Margaret
28, 1443, to John
Mrs. Parton writes

Parton, saying, have behested to

"I
go on pilgrimage to
Walsingham and St. Leonards for you."
27
When Henry the
Sixth was lying ill the principal members of his Court sought
leave to pilgrimages to sanctuaries in foreign countries
make
for his recovery. One of them was John Mowbray, Duke of
Norfolk, whose request the King graciously granted by writ
28
tested at Westminster on the I4th of August, A.D. I457-
Not long after this date the Duke was on pilgrimage at
Walsingham, and in the year 1471 the Duke and the Duchess
together were on pilgrimage to Our Ladye of Walsingham
2D
on foot.
Cardinal Wolsey ordered a yearly pilgrimage to be made
30
to Our Ladye of Grace at Ipswich. There exists in the Vatican
a letter from Wolsey to Pope Clement the Seventh, dated
London, April 16, 1526, returning thanks to His Holiness for
the Indulgences which he had granted to this sanctuary ;
. . .

ob sacra miracnla
quia dive Marie tie Ipswico sacellum hujits regni

20 21 22
S. p. 5. S. p. ii. S. p. 59.
23 24 -5 26
S. p. 65. S. S. p. 140. S. p. 142.
pp. 112, 113.
27 Our Ladye in the priory of St. Leonard Norwich. S. p. 112.
i.e., s,
28
Rymer, Fccdera, t. i. pt. xi. p. 78; Haga; Comitum, 1740.
30 S. p. 57-
*>

S. p. I7S-
1 1 o Devotions and Good Works.

fulgentisswmm lumen, ac incum natalc solnin dccorare dignata

1
fnit? Evidently the Cardinal was proud of his native place.
By a regulation made in 1268 the Canons of Senlis were
allowed fifteen days of non-residence to go to visit Our Ladye
of Boulogne. 32 By the "Consuetudincs" of Hereford Cathedral,
presumed to have been drawn up c. A.D. 1250, no canon was
allowed to make more than one pilgrimage across sea in his
life ;
for a pilgrimage to St. Denis he had leave of absence
for seven weeks ;
to St. Edmund of Pontigny, eight ;
to Rome,
and James St. and to Jerusalem, one
in Galicia, sixteen ;

year. By the same constitutions he was given three weeks

of absence every year to go on pilgrimage in England. 33

VICARIOUS PILGRIMAGES.
Asname implies, these pilgrimages were made by
their

deputy accordance with a wish expressed by will or otherwise.

in

In 1310 Marguerite de Dampicrre, wife of Gaucher the

Fourth, of Chatillon, by will dated the i6th of January, left
ten livres for the pilgrimages which she owed to Our Ladye
of Boulogne, and other sanctuaries which she named, and desired
that a pilgrim should be sent to each of them for her. 34 Formerly
it was the custom at Boulogne to offer the Viu d lionneur to
35
distinguished pilgrims.
In 1471, William Ponte makes a bequest "to
any one of
those who will pilgrimage for me to Blessed Marye of
3G
Walsingham." William Ecopp, rector of Hellerton, by his
will dated September 6, 1472, desires that a pilgrim, or some
pilgrims, be sent immediately after his burial on pilgrimage
for Our Ladye of Walsingham, Our Ladye of Lincoln,
him to
and five more sanctuaries of our Ladye, and at each to
offer 4d. 37 Robert Agas of Thurston mentions Our Ladye

31
Theiner, Vetera Moninnenta Hibernonim ci Scotontm Historiam Ilhtstrantia.
Romrc. Typis Vaticanis, 1864, p. 554, n. 982.
Chartulary of Notre Dame de Senlis, quoted in the MS. of Dom Gremier,
33

Bib. Imperiale, Paris, t. clxiii. f. 64 ; quoted by liaignere, N. D, de Boulogne, p. 47.

33
ArchiFolegia, v. xxxi. pp. 251, 252, notes.
34
Du Chesne, Histoire de la Maison de ChatiUon-sitr-Mante. Paris, 1621, p. 360;
Haignere, ubi sup. p. 62 ; cf. also p. 67.
35
S. p. 270.
36
Testamenta Vetnsta, p. 42,
37
S. p. 42.
 Penitential Pilgrimages. 1 1 1

of Woolpit as one of the seven local pilgrimages which he

directed his son to "go or do gon." 38 The various offerings
of Elizabeth of York, which I have recorded under the different
sanctuaries of our Ladye, were all made for her by deputy ;

and on the 26th of February, 1503, there is an entry of payment

to a man that went on pilgrimage to Our Ladye of Willesden,
39
by the Queen s commandment, of \\\s. ini^. John Parfay,
draper, of St. in his will dated
Edmundsbury, says 28, May
1509: bequeth
"I to a honest pst (priest) seculer (that) wyll
go for me to our Lady off Park n r Lyskard in Cofnewall, to

Seynt Mychell Mount, and to Seynt Jamys in Galys ye next

dyscesse x marcs."
40
yer off grace aftr my Legacies were
also left to pay pilgrims to repair to Our Ladye of Pitye at
Horstead. 41
PRNITENTIA L PIL GRIMA GES.
These deserve a longer notice than my space will allow me
to give. In the ages of faith penitential pilgrimages were very
common. They may be divided into two classes :
(i) Those
undertaken in a penitential spirit, like that of Henry the Second,
King of England, to the tomb of the Blissful Martyr, St.Thomas
of Canterbury (2) ; Pilgrimages made by order of a judicial
sentence. It is with these latter thatI shall
occupy myself;
because English sanctuaries are mentioned amongst those to
which judicial pilgrimages were made.
Our Ladye of Boulogne was one of the celebrated sanctuaries
of our Ladye to which pilgrimages of this sort were directed
to be made. About the year 1273, Margaret Countess of
Elanders, condemned a citizen of Ypres, who had stabbed
another with a knife, to make a pilgrimage to Our Ladye of
Boulogne. The ceremony, according to the terms of the
sentence, was solemn. The condemned was to receive publicly
church the pilgrim-staff and belt and on his return he
in the ;

was to bring back an attestation, under seal, that he had

fulfilled his sentence. 42 This is the earliest instance known
of a judicial pilgrimage to Our Ladye of Boulogne.
38
S. p. 249.
39 S.
p. 239.
40
Bury Wills and Inventories. Camden Society, p. 109.
41
S. p. 54.
4S The charter of the Countess Margaret is preserved in the Archives of the
Departement du Nord, France j Haignere, ubi sup. pp. 48, 50.
1 1 2 Devotions and Good Works.

This practice formed a part of the penal law in France for

43
the lay tribunals, as well as for ecclesiastical justice.
Pilgrimages to different shrines of our Ladye were often
imposed by the Inquisition in France. In the seventeenth

century the Registers of the Inquisition of Carcassonne were

transcribed by the Commissary Doat and these volumes form ;

one of the most curious collections in the Bibliotheque 44 at

Paris. In one of these Registers there is a list of the prin
in Christendom, classified according to the
sanctuaries
cipal
importance which they then enjoyed. There were four greater
ones, the Tomb of the Apostles in Rome, St. James of Com-
St. Thomas of Canterbury, and the Three Kings of
45
postella,
Cologne. The lesser ones were Our Lady of Boulogne,
Vauvert, Puy, Chartres, Roc-Amadour, and many others.
Often pilgrimages to these shrines were imposed in com
mutation of a more severe sentence, and might be performed
by deputy for a fixed sum of money.
These are the prices for deputy judicial pilgrimages from
Ghent to the English sanctuaries of our Ladye 4G
L ivrcs.
Our Ladye at Salisbury 500
Our Ladye at Walsingham 400
Our Ladye in the Church of St. Katherine at Lincoln .500
Our Ladye of Lincoln 500
The celebrated old pilgrim-hymn to Our Ladye of Boulogne
is now out of use : this is the first stanza

Roine qui fustes mise

Et assize
La sus ou thron divin,
A Boulogne vostre eglisc
Sans faintise
Sui venus ce matin
Comme vostre pelerin ;

Chief inclin

43
Collect. MS. de Camps, n. 39, f.
347, Bib. de Paris ; Haignere, ubi sup.
pp. 68, 69.
44
I believe that at the present time, 1877, the proper name is Bibliolheque
Nationale ; but its designation varies according to the dynasty which for the moment
is supreme.
45
By some, Compostella is considered to be another form of San Giacomo Apostolo,
Giacomo Apostolo, Como Postolo, Compostol, Compostella.
46
Cannaert, quoted in the Series under the respective names.
 Processions. 113

Humblement je vous prdsente

Mon ame et mon corps, affin
Qu a ma fin
Vous veuillies (estre prdsente) etc. 47

It consists in all of
eighty-four lines.

PROCESSIONS.

Congregatim de domibns confluebant, pnblica supplicatione obsecrantes.

2 Mach. iii. 18.

The processions in Catholic England must have been carried

out on a magnificent scale. Processions were formerly called
Litanies, and subsequently The first great pro
snpplicationes.
cession in Rome, the Litania
Septiformis, so called because the
people assembled in seven divisions, was the celebrated pro
cession organized in the year 591, to avert the of the scourge
plague which had attacked the city of Rome with excessive
violence. The Station was held at St. Marye Major. On the
third day, according to the old Libri Ritualcs, the
procession
went to St. Peter s, carrying the miraculous picture of our
Ladye
by St. Luke, and the plague ceased as it was borne through the
streets. When they arrived at the Tomb of Hadrian now the
Castle of Sant Angelo an angel was seen standing on the
summit, in the act of sheathing his sword, and angels were
heard singing, Rcgina Cocli Icetarc, Alleluia, Quia incruisti qncm
portarc, Alleluia, Resurrexit, sicut
to which
dixit, Alleluia:
St. Gregory added Orapro nobis Deum, Alleluia.
At Glastonbury there was a fair image of the Blessed Mother
of God. In the course of time, Abbot Chinnock, A.D. 1374
1420, clad it
very becomingly in gold and silver, and adorned
itwith precious stones. He also placed many relics in it. This
image, together with the other relics, was carried with vene-

47
From MS. 11,066, Bib. de Bourgogne, Brussels. See Haignere, hist. cit.
pp. 128132. But Mone has given another text from a different MS.,
consisting
of one hundred and thirty-two lines.
Royne, qui fustes mise
Et assise
Lapsus on throsne divin,
Devant vous en ceste eglise,
Sans faintise, etc.
Hymni Latini Medii Avi. Friburgi Brisgoviae, 1854, t. ii. pp. 214 216.
48
Baronius, t. x. pp. 493, 494, quoting from St. Gregory of Tours.
1 1
4 Devotions and Good Works.

ration in the processions which were made on the more solemn

49
festivals of the year.
in
At
Ipswich, procession was celebrated every year
a
50
honour of Our Ladye of Grace, on the 8th of September.
At Leicester, in the annual procession of our Ladye, her image
51
was carried under a canopy by four bearers, and preceded by
52
twelve persons representing the twelve Apostles. At Stamford,
in the procession of the Gild of our Ladye, five torches were
53
carried in her honour, evidently in commemoration of her Five
in honour of
Joys and at St. Albans, the weekly procession
;

our the monks was a very old custom.

Ladye, albs, wearing
Badulf, the seventeenth Abbot, A.D. 1 146 1
154, obtained that
54
it should be made to the altar of our Ladye.

The first great public procession in honour of our Ladye

celebrated in England after the repeal of the penal laws, took

place at Stonyhurst,
on the 26th of May, 1842.

ALMS.
Da tna, dum tna stints post mortem nnlla potestas
Dandi : si dederis,non peritura dabisj^

No one could ever refuse a poor person who besought alms

for our dear Ladye s love.

At Blois, the Hotel Dieu is described, in its earliest docu

ments, as LAnmone dc Notre Dame, as if to
show that it was
the love of our Ladye which prompted the support of this
50
charitable institution.
Maild, the mother of the Blissful Martyr St. Thomas, used
57
to place her son when young into a scale, and fill up his weight
in bread, meat, clothes, coins even, and other things, which were

49
John. Glaston. ubi sup. p. 46.
50 Town and Borough of Ipnvich. By G. R.
History and Description of the
Clarke. Ipswich and London, 1830, p. 178.
51
The image of our Ladye of Puy in France is carried in procession by four of
noble birth, and the four who bear the canopy are called the "Barons" of our Ladye.
52
S. p. 61.
53
S. p. 143.
54
S. p. 130.
55 in the town of Opolia or Oppela, near the frontiers
Over the door of a hospital
of Poland. Migne, Diet, des Pelerinages, t. ii. p. 1311.
56
Hamon, Notre Dame dc France, p. 135. Cf. Recherches snr r Hotel Dieu.
Par M. Dupre, Bibliothecaire de la ville de Blois.
87
Cf. Ducange, voc. ponderare.
 Alms. 115

of use to the poor, and then she would distribute them to the
needy, endeavouring thereby more earnestly to commend him
to the Divine Mercy,and to the protection of the Blessed Marye
ever Virgin. 58
In 1254, Walter de Suffield, Bishop of Norwich, left to
Walter de Calthorpe his nephew sundry articles, for which he
required him, as long as he lived, to feed one hundred poor on
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and to give a dinner to
a poor person every day in the year. 59

Archbishop Winchelsey of Canterbury was accustomed on

the four more solemn feasts of our Blessed Ladye, and on their
vigils, and on the feasts of her Conception, to distribute one
hundred and pennies to an equal number of poor persons,
fifty
in the praise of our Ladye. 00
Bread and meat given in our Ladye s love were called Saint
Marye s loaf,
61
and Ladymeat. 62
It may be that the chapel of our Ladye of Alingtre prope
fureas,or near the gallows, took its name from the custom of

giving a cup of ale to criminals as they passed on their way to

execution. 63
By his will, dated February 25, 1506-7, John Stockdall,
alderman of York, bequeathed to my wiff Ellen my new house "

in Petergait as long as she keepeth her soul and unmarried, so

yt she yerly on Candilmesse day mayk a dyner to thirteen men

and a woman, in the honour of Christ and His twelve Apostells,
and ye woman in the worschipe of oure Ladye, and to keep
oure Ladye Masse wekely on ye Saturday." 04
The Privy Purse expenses of the Princess Mary, afterwards
Queen Mary, contains this entry in the month of August, 1544 :

delyured to Mr. Lathom to distribute in almes on

"/////,

05
O. Lady daye, thassumption, xxj."

58
In Vita, auct. Rogerio de Pontiniaco. Patrol. Lat. t. cxc. col. 59. Edit. Migne.
59
S. p. 107.
uo
Anglia Sacra, t. i. p. 13.
61
S. p. 138.
82
S. p. 104.
63
S. pp. 51-53.
01
Test. Ebor. vol. iv. p. 257.
65
P. I6 3 .
n6 Devotions and Good Works.

FASTING.
The laws of King ^Ethelred say Let all Saint Marye s :
"

feast-tides be strictly honoured, first with fasting, and afterwards

00
with feasting."

John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 12781294,

who was a Franciscan, kept the Lent of his Order, which
consists of a fast of forty days in preparation for the feast of
the Assumption of our Ladye. 07 He also wrote a pastoral letter
on the subject, in which he recommended this Franciscan fast,

and granted an indulgence of ten days to all who should

68
observe it.

Fastinghonour of our Ladye, and sometimes on bread

in

and water,especially on Saturdays, is an old custom, and was

much practised by our forefathers. There is a proverb which
says :
Qui 11011 indigct Dives Virginis ope, cjus Sabbato non
jejunatf
In 1397 Hugh MacMahon recovered his sight by fasting in
honour of the Holy Cross at Raphoe, and of the Blessed Virgin
70
Marye at Ath-Trim.
The Saturday fast in honour of our Ladye was sometimes
called with the duck and dining but
"drinking once." Thus
in Piers Ploughman, our Ladye is thus addressed :

Lady to py leve sone, lowte for me nouthe

That he have pyte on me and mercy
putour, of his pure grace
Whit pat ich shal quath pat shrewe, Saterdayes for thy love
71
Drynke bote wt pe douke, and dyne bote ones.

Fordun, an old Scottish writer, alluding to this custom, says

that, the days of our fathers the Saturday was held in the
"in

greatest veneration in honour of the (Blessed) Virgin, chiefly by

the devotion of the women who, fasting every Saturday, were
most devoutly content with one refection of bread and water
72
only."

66
Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. Edit. Thorpe, 1840, folio edit. p. 131.
67
Wadding, Annales, t. v. p. 85, n. xxv. Romre, 1741.
68
Wilkins, Concilia, t. ii. pp. 94, 95.
69
Wichmans, Brabantia Mariana. Antv. 1632, vol. i. p. 121.
70
Annals of the Fonr Masters. See S. p. 311.
71
Passus Septimus, p. 96. Edit. "Whitaker. London, 1813.
73
Johis de Fordun, Scotichronicon. Edit. W. Goodall. Edinburgh, 1759, lib. vii.

cap. xlii. p. 422.

 Fasting. 117

He then notices some little peculiarities of the gratification

of regard of fasting in honour of our Ladye.
self-will in
Prelates are deserving of blame who allow the people to vary
"

the days of fasting in honour of our Blessed Ladye, since, for

the reasons already given, the Saturday is dedicated to her.
But now you will find men and women, who take good
both
suppers, eating even eggs on Saturday, who on Tuesday or
Thursday would not touch a crust of bread lest they should
break the of our Ladye.
fast Thus they transgress, without
fear, the fasts prescribed by the Church, cither on the Ember
Days, or the vigils of the Apostles, whilst neither for God nor
man would they break a fast which they have undertaken of
their own will, on days when meat is allowed. O self-will !

enemy of the soul !

opposed to God and pleasing to the foul
73
fiend."

I cannot help thinking that these voluntary fasts on

Tuesdays and Thursdays in honour of our Ladye must have
reference to some particular Scottish devotion, the memory of
which has perished. In some
according to Spinelli,
places,
even the feast of the Annunciation itself was kept a fast, out
of profound reverence to the great mystery of the Incarnation.
Fast was equally kept in some places on Tuesdays, in honour

of Our Ladye of Constantinople, and on Wednesdays in honour

of Our Ladye of Mount Carmel. 74
Thomas of Cantimpre, who wrote in the thirteenth century,
notices that the fasting on Saturdays, in honour of our Ladye,
obtained for many the grace of a sincere repentance, and a good
confession, together with the last sacraments of the Church,
before they died. 75
In Scotland, six feasts of our Ladye were kept with fasting
on the eve, as wasalso the festival of St. Thomas of Canterbury. 76
On the other hand, some extra portions were given to the
sick in honour of our Ladye on Saturdays. Thus Geoffrey,
sixteenth Abbot of St. Albans, A.D. 1119 1146, endowed the

73
Scotichronicon, cap. xlviii.
74
Pietas ac Dcvotio quibus B, Virgo Deipara Maria a nobis colcnda cst. Auct Pet.
Anton. Spinelli, S.J. cap. v. viii. apud Swnmam Auream de Laudibus B. V.M. t. v.
col. 101. Edit. Migne.
75
Bonum universale dc apibits in quo ex mirifica afiun repitb. tmivcrsa vita: bate et
Cliristiane instititcnda ratio traditur. Duaci, 1627, lib. ii. c. 28.
70
Breviarium Aberdoncnse, reprint, in Kalendario.
1 1 8 Devotions and Good Works.

infirmary with the church of St. Peter in the town, so that the
"

refectory of the infirmary might be supplied with a "charity of

wine or meat every Saturday, or on another day of the week
instead of the Saturday, when the commemoration of our Ladye
was which Abbot Geoffrey ordained to be made in albs. 77
kept,

HAIR-SHIRTS.

Corporal mortifications and austerities in honour of our

Ladye were also much practised, and one very favourite one
in England consisted in wearing a hair-shirt. As every one may
not know what
exactly a hair-shirt is, I may add that it is a
garment composed of horse-hair twine, netted, like the horsehair
gloves which are used in bath-rooms. One which I saw from
a monastery in Germany had arms, and was about four
feet long.
St. Thomas of Canterbury clothed himself with an "hard

heyre, full of knottes, which was his sherte, and his breche was
of the same;" and St. Edmund s mother
"were herde
heyre
78
for our
Ladye This sainted
s matron
love."included a
hair-shirt in the outfit which she gave her son on going to
the University, as I have already mentioned.
After Antony Widvile, Earl Rivers, had been beheaded, a
hair-shirt was found on his body. It was known that he had
worn it for some time before his death. It was subsequently
hung up before the celebrated image of our Ladye in the
White Friars church at Doncaster. 79
"When Sir Thomas More was about
eighteen or twenty
years old he used oftentimes to weare a sharp shirt of hayre
next his skinne, which he neuer left of wholy no, not when ;

he was Lo Chancellour of England. ... He added also to

:

this austeritie a discipline euerie fryday and high fasting

dayes. He used also much fasting and watching, lying

. . .

often vpon the bare ground, or vpon some bench, or

either

laying some logg vnder his head, allotting himselfe but foure
or five howers in a night at the most for his
sleepe, imagining
with the holie Saints of Christ s Church that his bodie was to be
77 Gesta Abbatnm Man. S. Albani, vol. i.
p. 76. Rolls Edit.
78
This is stated in a life of St. Edmund, in an imperfect black-letter volume in
the library of St. Beuno s College.
78
Bentley, Excerfta Historica, p. 245, see S. p. 28.
 The Marye Mass. 119
%
vsed as an asse, with strokes and hard fare, least
prouender
might pricke it, and so bring his soule like a headstrong iade
into the bottomelesse pitt of 80
hell." I can bear testimony that
an illustrious descendant of his, who now sleeps in Christ,
followed the example of his great ancestor in all these practices
of mortification and that after he had reached the patriarchal
;

age of eighty years, he still continued to fast on bread and

water on the Saturdays, in honour of our Blessed Ladye.

2. THE MARYE MASS.

Salve Sancta Parens, cnixa Pucrpera Regon,

Old cccluin tcrramqice rcgit per scccula.
Introit of our Ladye s Mass, Sedulius, Carmen Paschale.

Mention is frequently made in the Scries of the Mass of our

Ladye, often called the Mass of St. Maryc, or the Marye Mass.
In most of, if not in all, the cathedrals, collegiate churches, and
abbeys in England, it was the daily custom to sing a Mass of
our Ladye, which was celebrated at an early hour, and quite
independently of the festival of the day. Generally one parti
cular priest was appointed for this special duty, and he was
known as the Seynt Marye priest, a title which is often
mentioned in old wills. 81 And
would be called
his cesidence
82
St. Marye priest s house. I have found no record of the
83
origin of this pious custom, but it was not confined to England.
The Mass said on these occasions was the votive Mass of
our Ladye composed by our Alcuin, to whom, according to

general opinion, belongs the honour of having composed the

first Mass of our Ladye, which was inserted in the Missal
84
where it still is.

The
daily morning, or Maryc, Mass was the same throughout
the year, even on festivals of our Ladye. The Sarum Missal
gives it under the rubric Ordinatio Misse quotidiane bcate virginis

80
The Life and Death of Sir Thomas Moore, Lord High Chancellonr of England,
written by M.T.M. s. 1. v. a. pp. 27, 28. The hair-shirt of Sir Thomas More is now
preserved in the convent at Spettisbury.
81
Bury Wills, pp. 6, 16, 56, 74, 231.
82
S. p. 265 sub voc. Arlingham,
83
Cf. Act. SS. ad diem 14 April, p. 241 ;
also the Statutes of the Abbey of Chtny t

84
Alcuin, Liber Sacramcntonnn, c. vii. Opp..t. ii, col. 455. Edit, Migne.
I2O Devotions and Good Works.

que dicitur salve hence I am inclined to believe that chapels

:>

described as Salve Chapels were so called, because the Marye

Mass was celebrated in them. 86 The Sarum Missal also gives
a Mass for women before childbirth Missa ad honorem virginis :

gloriosc pro inulieribus pregnantibus, ant alias in partn labor-

antibns.
There can be no doubt that the Marye Mass was, in addition
to those I have already mentioned, celebrated in every church

in England, where the number of priests allowed of one being

told this pleasing duty without interfering with the
off for

parochial and other claims incumbent on their services. Thus,

at St. Andrew s, Norwich, and the Charnel-house, there was a

daily Marye Mass.

87
And in the Northumberland Household
Book, there is a list of my lordis chapleins and preists in
"

Household. Which be not appointed to attend at no tymes

but at service tymes and meallis," they are eleven in number,
and one of them is a priest for singing of our Ladies Mass
"

88
in the chappell daily."
In 1136, mention is made of the Marye Mass at Gloucester,
89
where it was celebrated, as usual, very early in the morning.
Within less than a century later, it had become general in all
the greater churches of England. Walsingham says that at
St. Albans the Marye Mass was sung with four candles, and
a chalice of gold and beautiful vestments it had been instituted ;

90
by Abbot William de Trumpington, 1214 1235. At Evesham,
twenty-four candles of wax and thirty-three lamps were to be
91
lighted daily, and to burn during the Marye Mass. Early
in the reign of Henry the Third, St.
Marye Mass in St. Paul s,
92
London, is mentioned. There was also a daily Mass of our
Ladye in the Tower, and payments to the chaplain for its
celebration are mentioned in the Liberate Rolls. 93 Both at
St. Paul s, 94 at Salisbury, 95 and elsewhere, there were foundations
for the At Ely, the custos of our Ladye s altar
Marye Mass.
received the offerings there, and provided the Missal, chalices,
all

vestments, and candles required for the celebration throughout

85
Edit. Paris, 1554, f. xxiii. in fine lib.
86
As at Barking, S. p. 3. 87
S. pp. 108, 109. 88
T. 323. S9 S.
p. 49.
90 i 2
S. pp. 130, 131. S. p. 37. S. p. 68.
53
24 & 25 Henry III. p. 13. S. pp. 68, 69. Valor Ecclcsiastictts, vol. ii.
p. 85.
 The Marye Mass. 121

the year. 96 At Magdalen College, Oxford, Wayneflete ordained

that the second Mass every day should be that of our Ladye
custom of the Church of Sarum. 97
after the
Elizabeth de Juliers, Countess of Kent, wife of John, Earl
of Kent, second son of Edmund of Woodstock, who died in
the 26th of Edward the Third, was solemnly veiled a nun at

Waverley by William Edendon, Bishop of Winchester. Subse

quently she quitted her profession, and was privately married
without licence to Sir Eustace Dabricescourt, Knight, on the
feast of St. Michael, 1360. The Archbishop of Canterbury
imposed on them a penance, one part of which was that they
should find a priest to celebrate daily service in Our Ladie s
Chapel in Wingham Church, and another priest to do the same
in their own private chapel. 98
The Marye Mass was invariably sung. When Cardinal
Wolsey issued his ordinances for all the houses of Canons
Regular throughout England, by which he strictly forbade the
use of cantus fractns ct divisus, commonly called Prick-song,"
in their choirs, he during the Mass of our Ladye
still allowed it

and the Mass of Jesus, which were sung outside of the con
ventual choirs in almost all the monasteries of the kingdom. 100
In 1463, John Baret left a house to the "Seynt Marie priest
101
of Seynt Marie Chirche here." The accounts of St. Marye
Hill, in London, for 1531, contain an entry of "Three
gallonds
102
and six pynts of malvesy for a year for Lady s Mass, 3.5-. 9^/."

that is about two pints and a half a month.

The
Provincial Council of Worcester, held under Walter de

Cantilupe in 1240, made a decree against the priests of our

Ladye s service going out for the day, after saying early Mass,
and not being present at Divine Office. 103 In the fifteenth

06
Bentham, Hist, and Antiq. of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of Ely,
p. 129. Lond. 1812.
97
Statute s, p. 119. Cf. also the Descript. of the Ancient Rites of Durham.
98
Nichols, Royal Wills, pp. 215, 216.
10
This was also expressed by figuralitcr, Singulis diebus in Aurora Missa de
Dominct nostra figuraliter dccantatur. Colvener, Liturgia Mariana c. ii. 3, apud
Summ. Aur. t. iii. col. 629.
100
Wilkins, Cone. t. iii.
p. 686.
lo
S. p. 135.
02;
Nichols, Illustrations of manners and Expenses of ancient limes in England,
p. 109. Lond. 1798.
103
Labbe, t. xi. pt. cap. xii, col. 577.
122 Devotions and Good Works.

century an abuse seems to have crept in of celebrating a very

early Mass on the five festivals of our Ladye, so as to leave
a long day enjoyment and pleasure. This was called
free for
the "

Gloton Masse," and it was at once prohibited. In 1418,

the commissary of the Bishop of Lincoln issued a monition
addressed to the Archdeacon of Leicester against those who
celebrate the Glutton Mass within the Archdeaconry, peremp
torily forbidding it under pain of excommunication. 104

3. OFFICE. LITTLE OFFICE OF THE IMMACULATE CON

CEPTION. ANTHEMS. SATURDAYS.

THE OFFICE OF OUR BLESSED LADYE.

Cum in psalnwdicc studiis ct divinis laudibus te vigilantcr exerceas,
hortor, venerande frater, et monco, ut quotidianum Beatce ice Virginis Mar
officium 11011 omittas.
105
St. Peter Damian to the Monk Stephen.

THE began centuries ago to recite the Office of

laity in Britain
our Blessed Ladye. St. Margaret of Scotland used to recite
this office every day it would have been of the primitive form,
;

since she died in i(X)3. 106 In the ancren Riwle there are minute
prescriptions about the method of reciting the Office of our

Ladye.
It seems that each anchoress had to copy or transcribe the

Hours of our Ladye for her own use, as the Riwle continues :

Let every one say her Hours as she has written them, and
"

say every service (tide, time, season of prayer) separately, as far

as you can in its own time, but rather too soon than too late,
... one psalm you shall stand if you are at ease, and at
at the
the other and always rise up at the Gloria Patri and bow
sit, ;

whosoever can stand always in worship of our Ladye, let

her stand in God s name; "hevo se mei stonden euer on vre
Leafdi wurschipe, stonde a godes halve," and at all the seven
hours say Pater noster and Ave Maria.
The Mironre of cure Lady, which is a devotional treatise on

104
Book of Alcmoranda of Philip Repingdon, Bishop of Lincoln, "\Vilkins; Concilia,
t. iii. p. 389.
105
Lib. vi. ep. 29, opp. t. i. col. 419, Patrol. Lot. t. cxliv. Edit, Migng,
106
Act. SS. ad diem 13 jun. p. 328. Edit. Palme,
107
P. 21.
 The Office of our Blessed Ladye. 123

the Divine Offices, with a translation of these offices as used by

the Sisters of Sion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
contains some interesting instructions on the Office of our
Ladye, and assigns various mystical significations to the several
Hours in close conformity with what Durandus gives in his
Rationale
The general arrangement of subjects for contemplation
during the recital of the Office of our Ladye is as follows :

at Matins, the Annunciation Lauds, the Visitation Prime, the

; ;

Nativity of our Lord Tierce, the Circumcision

; Sext, the ;

Purification None, the Adoration of the Three Kings Vespers^

; ;

the Flight into Egypt Complin, the Assumption. In all the

;

Sarum Prymers these subjects are engraved at the beginning of

the different Hours, but they are not invariably given in this
order.

Up to the Great Apostacy the Office of our Blessed Ladye

used in England was generally after the ancient and venerable
use of Sarum, which office differs in some respects from the
Roman. There was also an Office of our Ladye of the use
of York, printed by Ursyn Milner in or about 15 id 109 Only
one copy of it was known to exist some years ago, and I

have not ascertained where it now is. 110

These prayer-books, which were called Pryrners, contained
the Office of our Ladye, of the Dead, the Little Offices of
the Holy Ghost and the Holy Cross, the Seven Psalms, and the
Litanies of the Saints, the Passion of our Lord, together
with many other fine old prayers, which may be looked for
in vain in modern English books of devotion. Before printing
was invented, these Books of Hours were often magnificently
illuminated. Bequests of them often occur in wills thus, in :

111
1429, Ralph Avirley leaves his red Primer to Thomas Stone,

108
Rationale, lib. v. c. i. n. viii. Edit. Barthe lemy, vol. iii. pp. 6, 7. Paris, 1854.
100
Ames, Typog. Antiq. vol. iii.
p. 1431.
110
Memoir ofthe York Press. By Robert Davies, F.S. A. Westminster, 1 868, p. 2O.
Among the valuable MSS. in the Public Library nt Boulogne-sur-mer there is a fine
MS. Hone of our Ladye, which I take to be of the York use. It differs from the
Sarum with which I have compared it. The Litany contains amongst others the
names of Saints Alban, Oswald, Edmund, Augustine, Paulinus, John, Wilfred,
Cuthbert, Swythin, Edmund, Edward, Leonard, Sampson, Austreberta, Hilda,
Everildis, Etheldreda.
111
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 30.
124 Devotions and Good Works.

and in 1443, Henry Markett of York, merchant, left his second

best primer to Henry, his son.
The great number of existing MS. Horce prove how general
was the custom with the upper classes in England of reciting
the Office of our Blessed Ladye. Henry the Sixth recited it
daily.
112
Many of the Horce contain the armorial bearings, and
not unfrequently the portraits of the owner and his wife,
attended by their patron saints, and on their knees before our
Blessed Ladye. The so-called Bedford Missal is in reality the
Horce of our Ladye, executed for the Regent of France. Until
the time of Louis the Fifteenth it was the custom in France to
include in the trousseau of a bride a pair of beads and a copy of
the Hours of our Blessed Ladye. 113
When the Sarum rite ceased to exist in England, the
Office of our Ladye of the Roman use was introduced.
Thousands and thousands of copies were printed abroad, princi
pally in the Low Countries. They found their way to England,
and were well used, as I can testify from several old family
ones in my possession, one of which bears the names of four
generations by whom it was used.
It is also evident that our ancestors learned the Office of
our Ladye by heart in their childhood, and a peculiar feature
with them was that they recited it together, of which there
is evidence of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They
even recited it whilst dressing. The Boke of Curtesay admon
ishes Lytyl John
While that ye be aboute honestly
To dresse your self and do on your arraye
With felowe wel and tretably
Our lady matyns loke ye that ye say. 11 *

And xxx. of the Statutes prescribes that the

at Eton, chapter
scholars of the royal college in the mornings as soon
same
as they shall have arisen, and whilst making their beds, shall
115
say the Matins of our Blessed Ladye after Sarum use.
12
Agnes Strickland, Life of Margaret ofAnjon, p. 217.
113
Egron, CultedelaS. Viergc. Paris, 1842, p. 174.
114
Caxton s Boke of Curtaay. Early English Text Society, 1868. Extra series,
vol. iii.
p. 5.
115
Ancient Laws, for Kings College and Eton, p. 552. By their ancient
&>c.,

rules the Carthusians were allowed to say the Office of our Ladye whilst they were at
work : Horas B. M. omnibus diebus dicimus in cellis, vel ubi sumtts in opcre extra
 The Office of our Blessed Ladye. 125

Ladies were equally fervent in saying the Office of our

Blessed Ladye, and bequests of primers are often found in their
wills. Thus, in 1446, by will dated the i5th of August, Matilda,
Countess of Cambridge, leaves to my kinswoman (consanguined) "

Beatrix Waterton, a gold cross which belonged to my mother,

and my green [bound] prymer and a diamond, &c., to Katherine
Fitzwilliam a small black [bound] prymer, and to Alesia,
Countess of Salisbury, my cousin, my large best prymer. 110
Cardinal Fisher says of the Countess of Richmond, mother
of Henry the Eighth, that First in prayer every daye at
"

her uprysynge, which comynly was not long after five of the
clok, she began certain Devocyons, and so after them, with
one of her gentlewomen, the Matynes of our Ladye." 117
It will be noticed that this excellent princess recited the
Office of our Ladye with one of her gentlewomen in accord
ance with the usual custom in England, which made such an
impression on the Venetian Ambassador that he considered it
of sufficient importance to be mentioned in his relation to his
Government.
They are all present at and hear Mass every day and
"

. . .

if any can read they take the Office of our Lady to church, and

recite it in a low voice in alternate verses, after the manner

118
of religious orders."

Queen Katherine also daily recited the Office of our Ladye,

and on her knees.
The Martyr Lord High Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas
More vsed euerie day to say our Ladie s Mattins, the Seaven
"

psalmes and letanies, and manie times the Graduall psalmes,

with the psalme Beati immaculati in via and diverse other pious
119
praiers, which he himself composed."

cellas (Pars i. Stat. Antiq. cap. xxxvi. n. 13.

Basilesc, 1510). Cassian says that the
ancient monks
of Egypt were allowed to sing their psalms as they worked
(Opp.
Edit. D. Alardus Gazreus, O.S.B. Attrebati, 1628. Lib. iii. de Diurnis orationibus,
cap. ii. pp. 41, 42.
116
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 121.
117
A
mornynge remembrance had at the moneth mynde of the noble prynces
Margarete, Countess of Rychemonde and Darbye, moder vnto Kynge Henry the VII.
and grandame to our soverayne lorde that nowe is, uppon whose soule Almyghty God
have mercy. Emprynted at London, in Flete Strete, at the sygne of the Sonne,
by
Wynkyn de Worde (1521). Not paginated. Stonyhurst Library.
ns Italian Relation
of England. Camden Society, p. 23.
119
Christopher Cresacre More, Life and Death of Sir Thomas More, p. 31.
126 Devotions and Good Works.

LITTLE OFFICE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

Few prayer-books are now printed which do not contain the

Little Office of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed
Ladye, beginning with the hymn Salve Mundi Douiina. Never
theless, strange as may appear, with a very few exceptions,
it

those notably being the editions of 1730, 1802, and 1823, of the
celebrated Libelhts Precum? either the condemned version which
was put upon the Index in 1678, or a portion of it, is generally
given instead of the approved Office of 1679. The history of
this Little Office is evidently, in these days, quite unknown.
For the advantage of those who were unable to assist at
Divine Office, a shorter form of Office consisting usually of

hymns, and prayers to correspond with the seven

versicles,
Canonical Hours was prepared.
It is mentioned in the life of Alban Butler that he dis

approved of these Little Offices, which he attributed chiefly to

the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, and reference is made to
the well-known Ccelcstc Palmetum, by Father Nakateni, which
has gone through innumerable editions. I cannot, however, but
think that his biographer is at fault, because the learned hagio-

grapher must have known full well that Little Offices were in
common use from the middle of the thirteenth century, at the
latest. St. Bonaventure, who died in 1274, composed a Little
2
Office of the Passion of our Lord and a shorter one of the
;

3
Compassion of our Blessed Ladye. Another Little Office of
the Compassion of our Ladye is attributed to Pope Clement
the Fifth, A.D. 1305 1314, who granted forty days of indulgence
to all who recited it. 4 Any one who has examined MS. Horcz,
1
Libellus Prcatm ct Pianim Exercitatiomtm in nsum pie vivere et feliciter mori
desideranliuni. St. Omers, 1730. The Liverpool edition of 1823 is a verbatim reprint,
with the addition of the Officiw/i Pamum of our Blessed Ladye and that of the
dead. This most excellent prayer-book is given to every socialist at Stonyhurst and
the other Colleges of the Society of Jesus in England. Abroad, most of the sodalities
had their own prayer-book in Latin, varying more or less, but containing many devo
tions common to all. Having examined a large number of them, I do not hesitate to

say that our Libelhis is not excelled by any of them.

2
Opusc. t. i.
pp. 439 442. Lugd. 1619.
3
Ibid. pp. 486 490.
4
Hortnlm Aniw<r, Moguntie. 1511, not paginated; also Marracci, Pontifices
Mariani, c. Ix.
 Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. 127

and the early printed prayer-books, and Offices of our Ladye,

and the Sarum Horcs and Prymers, cannot have failed to notice
the number of Little Offices which they contain. In many of
these books the Hours of the Little Offices of the Holy
Cross and the Holy Ghost are inserted after the corres
ponding Hours of the Office of our Ladye, thus showing
that they were recited daily, as well as those of our Ladye.
A reprint of the Sarum Prymer, with the magnificent prayers
which our forefathers loved to recite, but which have been
replaced in many modern insipid and sensa
instances with
tional compositions,would be a great boon. All the early
printed Horcs and Prymers, and all the Officia of our Ladye
printed at Antwerp, Douay, St. Omer s, and Rouen, many of
those which came from the presses of the three latter places are
in English and Latin contain the Passion of our Lord and a
prayer to our Ladye, Obsecro tc Domina. This was called of
yore the Obsessio, or "Besieging prayer of our Ladye," those
who recited it feeling sure that our Ladye could never refuse
a petition made in such earnest words. rubric in the Sarum A
Prymer of 1534 prescribes its recital before an image of Our
5
Ladye of Pity that is, a representation
;
of our Ladye seated,
with her Divine Son dead and lying on her knees. 6 The old
English devotion to Our Ladye of Pity was very great and I ;

do not believe that there existed a church in England in which

an image of Our Ladye of Pity was not to be found. The
Thirty Days Prayer is the modern form of the Obscssio; and
it was a common practice with our forefathers to read a Passion

daily for the souls in Purgatory a pious custom which was ;

observed by the Anglo-Saxons, as appears from a document of

5
"To all them that be in the state of
grace that clayly say devoutly this prayer
before our blessyd laclye of pitie she wyll shevve them her blessyd vysage and warne
them the daye and the houre of dethe, and in theyr laste ende the angelles of God
shall yelde theyr sowles to heven, and he (they) shall obteyne v. hondred yers and soo
many lentes quadragenes or forty days) of pardon graunted by v. holy fathers
(i.e.

popes of Rome." In the Stonyhurst Library. I cannot give the

page, since the
pagination in many leaves of this splendid edition has been cut away.
G
Tabulam dcpictam, in qua est Pietas, id est, Dcipara in gremio tenens morttmm
jiliitm. Ada SS. ad diem 2 Junii, p. 489, ad ann. 1421. The title of our Ladye of
Pity applicable to this type or representation alone.
is
magnificent image of our A
Ladye of Pity, of English work, two feet six inches in height, was recently discovered
in Breadsall Church, Derbyshire. Photographs may be had of Mr. Richard Keene,
Fine Arts Repository, All Saints, Derby.
128 Devotions and Good Works.

about the year 805, which is given by Kemble in the Codex

Diplomaticits sEvi Saxonici. 1
The institution of the festival of the Conception of our
Ladye in England is attributed to St. Anselm the earliest ;

evidence in favour of St. Anselm is a Constitution of Simon

Meopham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Provincial Synod of
8
London, held in St. Paul s in February, I328. For many years
it had no
proper Office the Office used was that of the Nativity
;

"

of our Ladye, "

Conception being substituted for

"

Nativity."

This substitution of Nativity was made

" "
" "

Conception for
in consequence of the alleged vision of Elsi, described in the

apocryphal letter of St. Anselm, which is printed amongst his

spurious works.
9
As this vision occupies a prominent place in
several of the Offices of the Conception, it is as well to give its

history, which is, briefly, as follows :

"After the it was Norman

rumoured that the invasion
Danes were preparing to fight the invaders, on the pretext that
England was theirs by right. Wherefore William sent a prudent
envoy, Elsi, Abbot of Ramsey, to Denmark to find out the real
state of the case. After having accomplished his mission, and
whilst on his return to England, he was overtaken by a dreadful
storm at sea. In his danger he invoked our Blessed Ladye,
when a venerable old man, robed as a bishop, was seen
lo !

walking on the troubled waters towards the ship. He thus

addressed Elsi Know that I am Nicholas, sent to thee by
:

the Blessed Mother of God, whom thou hast invoked. Wouldst

thou be saved ? Promise to God and to me that thou wilt
celebrate and cause to be celebrated the festival of the Concep
tion of the most pure Mother of God : the Office shall be that
of her Nativity, Conception being substituted for Nativity. 10
"

There are different versions of this alleged vision. Peter de

Natalibus says that it occurred to St. Anselm whilst Abbot of
11
Bee, and crossing the straits on his way to England on affairs

7
Vol. i.
p. 93.
8
Labbe. Concilia, t. xi. c. ii. col. 2478. Paris, 1672.
y
Opp. t. ii. coll. 319 321, 323. Patrol. Lat. t. cxlix. Edit. Migne.
10
Ibid.
11
Catalogus Sanctorum, 1. i. c. xlii. f. ix. Lugduni, 1508. St. Anselm was born
A.D. 1033, entered the Order of St. Benedict in 1060, became Abbot of Bee in 1078,
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, and died in (Ada SS. t. ii. ad diem 1109 Aprilis
21 Apr. p. 865).
 Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. 129
of his Order. The Cursor Mundi, a poem of the fourteenth
century, a copy of which is in the British Museum, describes the
apparition to Elsi as that of an angel, and not of St. Nicholas, 12
or one vested in episcopal robes.
The lessons of the Office of the Conception of our
Ladye,
which Langebek quotes from a MS.
Breviary which he does
not name, describe the apparition as that of an
angel arrayed in
pontificalrobes. Langebek, however, gives their date as
A.D. 1042, but as the fifth lesson describes the victory of
William the Norman over Harold, which occurred
twenty-four
years later, there is clearly a mistake somewhere.
According to
Langebek, these lessons were originally in a MS. written in the
year 1042, and belonging to the Academic Library of Copen
hagen, which MS. perished in the fire of 1728. They had,
however, been copied out, together with other legends of saints,
by Thomas Bartholinus, and inserted in Tom. A. of his collec
tions. These extracts were also burnt in the same fire, but the
charred fragments were partially restored
by Arnas Magnaeus
and others and it was from the charred fragments of Bartho
;

linus that Langebek published these lessons. 13

With reference to the authenticity of the vision, St. Bernard
alludes to it in his letter to the Canons of Lyons, written
A.D. 1140, but gives no credence to it. 14
Gerberon, the Bene
dictine editor of the edition of the works of St. Anselm which I
have used, expresses his opinion very plainly. Mgr.
Malou, the
late learned and venerated
Bishop of Bruges, does not hesitate
to say rfait dc la vision dc Vabbe Helsin est
: "Le
II
apocryphe.
fourmille d incoherences, d anachronismes, et dc contradictions"
The venerable Lord Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. Ullathorne, who
has written an interesting book on the Immaculate
Conception
of our Blessed Ladye, entertains a different 16
opinion.
The authenticity of this alleged vision is a question with

12
MS. Cott. Vespasian A. iii. f.
139, col. i.
13
Scriptores rerum Danicarum medii awi. t. iii. pp. 253, 254.
"

^
Epist. 174. Opp. t. i. coll. 333335. Patrol. Lot. t. clxxxii. Edit.
Migne.
15
VlmmacuUt Conception de la B.V.M. consideree comme Dogme de Foi, par
Mgr. J. B. Malou, eveque de Bruges, vol. i. p. 114; vol. ii.
pp. 429439. Bruxelles
1857.
6
The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. An
Exposition by the Right
Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham.
London, 1865, pp. 168170
130 Devotions and Good Works.

which I do occupy myself. Domesday

not, and need not, here
Book, as the Great Survey made by order of William the
was unknown to Dom Gerberon, and to
17 18
Norman is called,
Malou. The former was evidently misled by an error in the old
edition of the Monasticon, which assigns the date A.D. 1080 to
19
Elsi, whose successor is stated to have been the celebrated
Herbert de Losinga, subsequently Bishop of Thetford and ;

Malou, in all probability, accepted this mistake. Now it is proved

20
by the Ramsey Register that Elsi was a witness to a charter of
21
St. Ead\vard the Confessor, and also to a deed of William the
Domesday Book
22 records the
Norman, A.D. lo/o. Moreover,
absence of Abbot need say no more
Elsi in Denmark. 23 I

about Elsi. Two other visions of our Ladye, which are also
24
considered apocryphal, are mentioned in the spurious letter of
St.Anselm yet they, together with the vision of Elsi, are
;

commemorated in the original version of the Little Office of the

Immaculate Conception.
The earliest Office for the festival of the Immaculate Con
ception of our Ladye was that of her Nativity,
"
"

Conception
25
being substituted for "Nativity" wherever it occurs. The next
Office was that of the Nativity of our Lady, but the first six
lessons Matins are taken from the apocryphal letter of
at
St. Anselm, and give the history of Abbot Elsi. The lessons of
the third nocturn are from St. Jerome. Another Office of the

Conception of our Ladye is styled Offidnm Conccptionis Beatce

Marice Virginis ex Concilia Basiliensi ; the lessons of the first
nocturn are from the decree of the Council, A.D. 1431 and ;

those of the second and third from the apocryphal letter of

17 This
priceless national record, the equal
of which is possessed by no nation,
used to be preserved at Winchester, in the Chapter House, which was called the
Damns Dei, hence it was known as the Liber Donnts Dei, whence the name Domesday
Book.
18
Cf. his Censura on the works of St. Anselm, torn. i. coll. 42 45. Edit. cit.
39 Cf. Mon. An^l. vol. ii.
p. 548 of the modern edition.
20
MS. Cott. Vespasian, E n.
21
Ibid. f.
9.
22
Ibid. f. 1 6 b.
83 Sed cum abbas esset in Danemarca, &c. vol. i. f. 208. Cf. also Ellis, Introduc
tion 1o Domesday Book, vol. ii.
pp. 99 104. London, 1833.
24
See the Censura of Gerberon, loc. cit. ^lbi sup.
25
E.g. Nativitas est hodie Sancta Maria Virginis. Conceptio est hodie Sanctit
Mariar Virginis, &c. as in the Brev, Rom. infest. Nativ. B.M. V.
 Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. 131

St. Anselm. 20
Hitherto the Offices were of the Conception of
our Ladye.
A
few years later the Offices of the Immaculate Conception
appear.The first is the celebrated Sicut Lilinm Office, so
named from the first anthem at Vespers Sicut lilium inter
spinas, sic arnica mea inter filias Adas. It was composed by
Leonard Nogaroli, a protonotary apostolic, and approved by
Sixtus the Fourth. The lessons make no mention of Elsi ;
the
collect is as follows :

Deus qni per immaculatam virginis conceptionem dignum filio

tuo habitaculum prceparasti, concede qucesumus, ut sicut ex mortc

ejusdem filii tui prcevisa, earn ab omni labe prceservasti, ita nos
quoque mundos ejus intcrcessione ad tc pcrvenirc concedas. Per
enndem, &C?
1

It was followed almost

immediately by another Office of the
Immaculate Conception, which was composed by Bernardine de
Busti of Milan, a friar minor of St. Francis. It is the most

copious of all the Offices of the Immaculate Conception, for it

contains ninenew lessons for every day of the octave. Sixtus
the Fourth approved of it, first verbally, and then by Brief
under the ring of the Fisherman, dated St. Peter s, October 4,
1480 and later, viva vocis oraculo, attached to it the same
;

indulgences with which he had enriched the Sicut Lilium Office

of Leonard Nogaroli.
The fifth and sixth lessons of the fourth day of the octave
give the history of Abbot Elsi, but St. Nicholas is not men
tioned by name ;
the apparition is described as that of a
venerable man
wearing an episcopal mitre.
This Office never attained the celebrity of the Sicut Lilium;
it was little used, and is rarely to be met with. F. Bernardine
de Busti also composed a Mass of the Immaculate Concep
28
tion.

26
For many interesting particulars cf. Z Immaatlee Conception de la Bienhetirctise
Vierge Marie consideree comme Dogine de foi, par Mgr. J. B. Malou, eveque de Bruges.
Bruxelles, 1857, vol. i.
pp. 141, seq.
27
Breviarium Romanum, f. cccclix. Lugcluni, 1509. [This collect is used in the
latest Office of the Immaculate Conception, ordered to be used generally by Pius IX.
in 1863.]
!8
This Office and Mass are given in the Mariale of B. de Busti, Nuremberg,
1503, not paginated, in folio, from which I have taken all these details. Cf. Wadding
Annales, ad ami. 1480, n. 38.
132 Devotions and Good Works.

As these preliminary observations contain all that is requi

site for the history of the Little Office of the Immaculate

Conception, unnecessary for me to say anything about the

it is

Breviary compiled by Cardinal de Ouignonez,

and of the subse
quent Offices of the Immaculate Conception. During the
glorious pontificate of the Sovereign Pontiff Pius the Ninth of
happy memory, three new Offices of the Immaculate Conception,
the one superseding the other, have been inserted in the
Breviary.
Two at least of the those of I53I 29 and
Sarum Prymers
80
I534 contain a Little Office called that of the Conception
of our Ladye, but being, in reality, of the Immaculate Con
ception. They are both different. The Office in the Prymer
of 1531 had been given twenty-three years previously in the
Hore Beate Marie Virginis, printed by Kerver at Paris in 1 508,
31
a copy of which I have seen in the Museum at Maidstone.
years later another Little Office of the Immaculate
Some
Conception appeared, the Salve Mundi Domina, which is now in
almost universal use throughout the Church.
Its author is unknown. Alegambe, Southwell,
32
and De
83
Backer, attributed it to Blessed Alphonsus Rodriguez, of the
Society of Jesus but the Bollandists
;
do not consider that the
education which he had received would have enabled this holy
34
lay-brother to have composed it. Moreover, Father Colin, S.J.,
who was and afterwards wrote
his disciple in spiritual matters,
35
his life, is of opinion that it may have been taken from the

Large Office of Bernardine de Busti, or have been composed by

him, because in the Little Office, as recited by Blessed

29 F. cxxvii.
Stonyhurst Library. According to the index, this Little Office is
included amongst some prayers newly added to this edition.
30
F. Ixxxi. Stonyhurst Library.
31
The Hore J3.M. ad usum FF. Predicator. Ord. S. Dominici, printed by Kerver
in 1529, also contains it. A copy is in the Bib. Royale at Brussels. De Alva et

Astorga gives it, pp. 145, 146.

32 Antv. 1643.
Bibliotheca Scriptorum Soc.Jesu, sub nomine.
33
Ecrivains de la Cotnpagnie de Jesus, sub nom. 2. ed.
34
Most obligingly communicated by the learned writer of his life in the forth

coming volume of the Act. SS.

35
Vida, hecJios, y milagros del Venerable Hermano Alonso Rodriguez, Religioso de
la Campania de Jesus. Despuesta por el Padre Francisco Colin, Rector del Colegio de
Manila, Madrid, 1652. This is a work of considerable rarity. A copy is in the
Bollandist Library; and another in the Library of the Fathers of the Oratory, South

Kensington.
 Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. 133

Alphonsus, the three apparitions described in the apocryphal

letter of St. Anselm are given.
But be the author who he may, it is certain that Blessed
Alphonsus recited this Little Office daily for the last forty years
of his life, and since he died in 1617, this takes it back to 1577
at least. At the earlier part of this period, the Little Office
cannot have been in print, because Colin records, that in conse

quence of injunctions received from our Blessed Ladye herself,

the good lay-brother, who fulfilled the onerous duties of a
janitor, or door-porter in the College of Palma in Majorca,
occupied all his spare moments in transcribing copies of it for
distribution amongst the students who frequented the College,
and others. 36

Although Blessed Alphonsus recited it in its original form

until his death, two years at least, if not more, before that event,
the Little Office underwent a change the three visions were ;

omitted, and it assumed almost its present form, and in such

form was approved of by Paul the Fifth in 1615. The Office in
this form continues Colin cs cl mismo que dos anos antes de sit
:

feliz transito, approvb la Santidad de Paulo Quinto, a instancia

del Reverendissimo Padre Fray Antonio de Trejo, entonccs Vicario
General de la Orden del Scrafico Padre San Francisco, y despucs
dignissinw Obispo de Cartagena?
1
The importance of this
evidence will presently appear.
After the death of Blessed Alphonsus Rodriguez, the reve
lation of our Blessed Ladye to him in regard of this Little
Office was made known, and contributed immensely to its
popular diffusion and recital. It was spread far and wide, and
38
printed in many parts of Europe. Colvener mentions an
36
Describing the various daily devotions and prayers of Blessed Alphonsus to our
Blessed Ladye, one of which was this Little Office, Colin says: Estas dei ociones
aprovb la Reyna de los Angeles, y mandb a sit siervo Alonso que las escr iviesse y cominu-
nicasse a otros, y animasse con su excmplo a usarlas. Y coino el, for su Jnimilidad se
recogiesse y rezelasse, qm no hiiviesse en aquello a/gun eiigano, bolvid la Virgin <i

mandarle lo mismo, y le quito todo rczclo, y assi desde entonces persitadia a los Hermanos
de casa, y estndientes seglares, que con el tratavan, que rezassen cada die este oficio y
paras mas facilitarlo, se lo dava escrito de su mano ( Vida, &c. cap. xx. ff. 72, 72 b).
Alegambe gives the following as the prayers composed by Blessed Alphonsus Corona :

carissima: et amantissinuc Doinintc Matris Maritc ; Litanuc cjusdeni ; Sanctissimum

Officium Purissim<c et Immaculate Conccptionis ejusdem Deipanc (Bib. Scriptor. Soc,

fesu, sub. nom.).
37
Vida, &c. ff. 72, 72 b.
38
Ibid.
134 Devotions and Good Works.

edition of the year 1613, but does not say whether it was the
39
original or the amended version.
It was printed in large type at the Plantin Press in Antwerp
in 1621, in a book of Little Offices, entitled Exerdtivm Hcbdo-
mariinn, collcctore Joanne Wilsono, Sacerdote A nglo, in gratiam
piorvm Catlwlicorvin, which was reprinted verbatim at the
Plantin Press in 1630. has the approbation of four bishops
It
and one archbishop, which is undated, but must have been
given, at the latest, early in 1618, since James Blaze, Bishop
of St. Omer s, died on the 2ist of March of that year. 40 Now
at page 126, immediately after the Commendation, Supplices
offeriinus Tibi, Virgo pia, &c., there is a rubric as follows :

Sequcns A na. a Paulo V. Pont. Max. approbata est ; qui eandcni

ima cum oratione de inintaculata Virginis Conceptione redtantibns
centum dicrum Indulgentias concessit.
Ana. Hczc cst virga, &c.
V. In conccptione tna, &c. R. Ora pro nobis Patron, &c.
Oratio. Dens qui per immacnlatam Virginis Conccptionem, &c.
as is given at the end of the Little Office.
Father Colin fully confirms this evidence. After repeating
what I have already quoted of Paul the Fifth, he says that the
Brief was cxpcdido a instancia del muy Revcrendo Padre, Fray
A ntonio de Trajo, Vicario General de la Orden del Scrafico Padre
San Francisco, dada en Roma en Santa Maria la Mayor, a
27 Julio dc 1615. Y tiene den dies de indulgencia para los que la
rezeren, afladicdo la antipJiona. Haec est virga, &c. con sn
versicnlos y oracion, Deus qui per Immaculatam Virginis Con-

ceptionem, &c. La anadira a la fin del

qual, continues Colin, se
ofido quc aqni pddremos,para que gozen del tesoro de la indulgencia
los que le rczeran. He then gives the Little Office as approved
of by Paul the Fifth, and also in its original form, as recited by
41
Blessed Alphonsus.
S9 Kalendarium Marianum, cap. iii. 3.
40 This is the license. Imprimatur: Petrus, Episcopus, Prorex, ct supremtts
Inquisitor Jucretica: pravitatis in Regno Lusitanicc ; Michael Archiepiscopus Vlyssiponen-
sis ; Alphonsus Episcopus Conimbricens ; Fr. Jacobus Episcopus Audomaretts ; Joannes

Episcopns Anhverpiensis. dun Privilegio Serenissimorum Bclgica: Principnm. DC

Witte. A rare little book, in red and black, entitled Ojficium Purissima: et Imma-
cnlattc Conceptionis Deiparcc Virginis (Antv. apud Gulielmum Lesteenum, M.DC.XXXV.
p. 72), contains the following APPROBATIO :Hoc Officinm immatiilata: Conceptions
Dcipara: Virginis Alariic cst pitun, ct dignnm ut omnibus in pietate. fagatur : merito
al>

ergo imprimi debct. Quod tester, 6 Martii anni 1621. Egbcrlus Spitholdius Pleb.
Antvcrpiuisis, A copy of this book, but apud Joannem Knobaert, is in the Bollandist
Library.
41
Vida, &c. ff. 215217.
 Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. 135

Thus from Father Colin, and from the two Antwerp editions
of 1621 and 1630, with the approbation of one archbishop and
four bishops, there is positive evidence that the indulgence of
one hundred days was attached, not to the Little Office itself,
but to the antiphon, versicles, and prayer added to it at the end
of the commendation. Moreover, Colin gives the date of the
Brief July 27, 1615 which is very important.
In this form, with the indulgence of one hundred days
attached to the antiphon, versicles, and prayer at the end of the
commendation, but not to itself, the Little Office was spread far
and wide, and translated into various languages. I have seen
translations into Flemish, French, Greek, 42 Italian, Portuguese,
Polish, and Spanish. The earliest English translation of which
I know was printed at Rouen in i669. 43

John Wilson s Excrcitium Hcbdomariiun of 1621 and

44
i63O, Father de Balinghem, S.J., 45 the Typns Prcedcstina-
47
tionis^ and Colin, all quote the Little Office ut Jiabctur in "

quibnsdam horis valde antiquis" It is probable that one took

the authority from the other. On this point I can offer no
explanation, but this much I may say, that for the last twenty-
six years I have examined MS. and early printed Horcs, and
other prayer-books, without number, and have not found the
slightest trace of this Little Office, Salve Mundi Dourina.
Suddenly, on the i/th of February, 1678, Fra Raymond
Capizucchi, Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace, issued a

42
TO TUV Kadohixuv Eu^/oXo^/ov. By Aloysius Pcrrault Maynand. Paris,
Preisse 1838, pp. 558 586. But the Latin text used is the condemned version of
1678.
43 Edited by Thomas
Primer, &C., with six neiv Offices added. Fitzsimon, Priest.
Printed at Roven by David Mavry, 1669. This translation has been frequently
reprinted. Other English translations have been made by the late Provost Husenbeth,
R. Fr. Aylward, O.P. the late Rev. E. Caswall, Edmund Waterton, and an anony-
,

"mous translator, with the approbation of the Bishop of Clifton. An excellent trans
lation which I once saw was made at Stonyhurst in 1843, by the late Rev. Henry
White, S.J., but the only MS. copy known has unfortunately been lost. I have heard
of two other translations which have never been published.
41
Ubi. Sup. p. 104.
43
Parnassus Marianus, seu Flos hymnorum et rhythmorum de SS. Virgine
Maria ex priscis turn Missalibus, turn Breviariis plus sexaginta, collectorc A. de
Balinghem, S.J. Duaci, 1624.
46
Typus prcedestinationis et conceptionis Maria: filirc Dei immaculatte. In find
Antv. 1630.
47
Vida, c. ff. 215.
136 Devotions and Good Works.

decree by which the recital of the Little Office of the Imma

culate Conception was prohibited, and the Little Office itself
was placed upon the Index Librornm prohibitornm. The edition
or copy of the Little Office referred to in this decree was printed
at Milan by Francis Vigone; 48 and Capizucchi issued this decree
on the sole information of D. Michael Angelo Ricci who was
one of the consultors of the Holy Office. A reference to the
Index shows that Capizucchi included the antiphon, versicle,
and prayer, at the end to which alone the indulgence was
attached as a portion of the Little Office.
Offizio deW Iinniacolata Concezione dclla S. Vergine Nostra
Signora, approvato del Somino Pontefice, Panlo V, il qnale a
eld lo rccitara concede Indulgcnza di cento Quod Officiinn
giorni.
tncipit : Eja mea labia nunc annunciate. Et dcsinit cnm orat :
Deus qui per Immaculatam Virginis Conceptionem, etc. Dccret.
49
17 Fcbr. i6;8.
The plea named for this decree, as will be seen presently,
was, that it was falsely asserted that Paul the Fifth had
approved of this Little Office, and that it contained an apo
cryphal indulgence. Evidently Capizucchi knew nothing of
the Brief of Paul the Fifth, of the 2;th of July, 1615, of which
Colin has given such precise details. What the other reasons "
"

may have been is not recorded. But from the

(a/ics causes)
decree would appear that Capizucchi himself, by including
it

the antiphon, versicles, and prayer, as a portion of the Office

had thereby construed the indulgence really granted by Paul
the Fifth to them only, as affecting the entire Office, and had
thus committed the very mistake which was adduced as the
main cause of the prohibition.
This decree of the too zealous Master of the Apostolic Palace
caused universal consternation and dismay, more especially in
Germany and in Spain.
The Emperor of Austria, Leopold the First, wrote to the
Holy Father to have the decree of Capizucchi revoked. On
the 1 8th of December of the same year, 1678, Pope Innocent

18
St. Dominic \vas the first Master of the S.
Apostolic Palace, and was so
created by Honorius the Third in
12161217, and in consequence this post has
always been held by a Black Friar (Butler, Lh-es of the Saints, vol. viii. p. 84.
Dublin, 1780).
40
Piazza, Causa, ft/n/i. Concept, p. 262, n. 216.
 Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. 137

the Eleventh replied to the letter of the Emperor in these terms:

Most dear son in Christ. ... A few months ago a certain
"

Office of the Immaculate Conception was prohibited because

it contained an apocryphal indulgence, and because it was
falsely asserted that it had been approved of by Our predecessor
Paul the Fifth of happy memory, and for other reasons which
it was necessary to consider lest the Faithful might be deceived.

But that Office, i.e., the Sicut Lilium, which, by permission of

the Holy See, has been recited from most ancient times, is not
included in that prohibition. For We do not desire in any way
to diminish devotion to the Mother of God, but rather, as much
as it can be done, to increase and augment it. This is Our
answer to your Majesty upon that question. But you will
learn all farther details by word of mouth from the Ven. F.
Francis, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Our Nuncio. In the mean
while We
give you the praises due to the noble zeal which your
letter expresses, and We
impart to your Majesty our Apostolic
50
benediction."

This document is abundantly significant.

Charles the Second of Spain also wrote to Innocent the
Eleventh to the same effect as the Emperor Leopold had done. 51
The Holy Father having
thus had his attention fully drawn
to the decree of Capizucchi, lost no time in causing the question
to be fully examined, and this duty was given to five consultors
of the Holy Office, amongst whom were D. Michael Angelo
Ricci, and Father Capizucchi himself. The result of their
deliberations was that the Little Office of the Immaculate
Conception was taken off the Index, the Holy Father, of his
own accord, causing Iinmaculatani to be added after Sanctaui
in the prayer, and the Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace,

Capizucchi, ne vana proJdbitio videretnr, made a few other

52
changes in the text. In this revised and approved form it
was first printed at Lucca in the following year, 1679, with the
53
approbation of the Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace.
A copy of this edition was sent to Charles the Second of
54
Spain.
60
Index libr. prohibitor. Mechlinize, 1860, pp. 233, 234.
61
Gravois, op. cit.
p. 45, n. 19. Piazza, Causa. Imm. Concept, p. 447.
52
Malou, op. cit. vol. i. p. 200 ; vol. ii. p. 323.
5a
Gravois, op. cit.; Sntntnarhim in fine oferis, p. 45; Piazza, p. 262, n. 217.
54
Piazza, n. 218.
138 Devotions and Good Works.

give the prohibited version of 1678, and the corrected

I and
approved text of 1679 in parallel columns.

LITTLE OFFICE, c.

Version put on Index 1678. Corrected and approved version 1679.

Invitatory.
V.Eja mea labia, etc.
R. Laudes et praeconia Virginis R. Laudes et pneconia Virginis
beatce. immaculatce.

AT MATINS.
Salve plena gratia
Clara lux divina. Clara luce divina.

Te pulchram ornavit
Sibisponsam in qua Sibi Sponsam qua in
Adam non peccavit. Adam non peccavit.

Versicle, throughout the Little Office.

V. Domina exaudi orationem Domina protege orationem

V.
meam. meam.

The Prayer.
. . . ut qui nunc tuam Sanctam . . . ut qui nunc tuam Sanctam ct

Conceptioncm devoto affectu recolo. Immaculatam Conceptionem devoto

affectu recolo.

AT PRIME.
Ipse creavit illam in Spiritu
V.
Sancto.
R. Et effudit illam super omnia R. Et exaltavit illam inter omnia
opera sua. opera sua.

AT COMPLINE.
V. Benedicamus Domino.
R. Deo Gratias.
V. Fidelium animce per misericor- Bencdicat et custodial nos Omni-
V.
diam Dei requiescant in pace. potens et misericors Dominus Pater; et
Filius, et Spiritus Sauctus.
R. Amen. R. Amen.

Commendation.
Supplices offerimus,
Tibi, Virgo Pia,
Has horas canonicas. Hcec laudum praconia.^

By the Constitution Crcditce Nobis of the 7th of June, 1680,

which confirmed the Statutes for Ecclesiastics in Bavaria,
Innocent the Eleventh ordained that the young clerics who,
on account of their tender age, did not recite the Officitim
55 n. 217.
Gravois, Summariiim, p. 45; Piazza, p. 262,
 1 39
Antiphons.

Parvum of our Blessed Ladye, should say instead the Little

Office of the Immaculate Conception as approved of by the
56
Holy See, principally to preserve their chastity.
Such, then, is the history of the Little Office of the Imma
culate Conception of our Blessed Ladye. I hope that, for the

future, censors of prayer-books will examine the text, wherever

it is submitted to them, and see that they do not give their
Imprimatur to that version of it which was put on the Index.

ANTIPHONS.

Another favourite devotion of our ancestors was the evening

antiphon, or anthem, of our Ladye, which was sung in the
cathedral and collegiate and other churches in England. It
was also sung at other times. Thus, in 1365, John Barnet,
Bishop of Bath and Wells, made a large donation to the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul s, London, requiring them every day
after Matins to sing an anthem of our Ladye, Ncsciens Mater,
or another one, before our Ladye at the pillar, in the nave,
57
commonly called Our Ladye of Grace.
Many bequests occur of candles to be lighted during the
Salve. At Barking there was a chapel of Our Ladye de
Salue, or Salve, so called, I infer, either because the Salve was
usually sung in it, or because the Marye Mass was celebrated
there. 58 At St. Peter s Mancroft, in Norwich, the Salve was
59
sung in the Ladye Chapel.
In the Church of St. Magnus, London, near London
in

Bridge, there was, as Stow Records, most famous Gild of

"a

Our Ladye de Salve Regina 60 j"

and he adds that "most other
churches had theirs." 61 Hence it appears how universal they
were in England. The oft-quoted foundation charter of
Whittington College, dated December 14, 1424, requires that,
on each day of the week, at or after sunset, when the artisans
residing in the neighbourhood have returned from their work,
a special little bell shall be rung for the purpose, and the
chaplains, clerics, and choristers of the college shall assemble
62
in the Ladye Chapel, and sing an anthem of Our Ladye.

56
Bullar. Rom. torn. viii. p. 135, n. 12. Edit. Romse, 1743.
67
S. pp. 68, 69. 58
S. p. 3.
59
S. p. 115. w S. p. 87.
61 6Z
Monasticon Angl. t. vi. p. 741. The Prioresses Tale. Opp. f. 68 b.
140 Devotions and Good Works.

According to Chaucer the anthems of our Ladye were

taught in the schools to children.
But the anthems of our Ladye were not confined to the
church her liegemen delighted to sing them at all hours, and
;

whether journeying by sea or land, or going forth in quest of

alms for our dear Ladye s love.
The dear little clergion, the widow s brave child, who
preferred to risk a thrashing three times within an hour rather
than not learn the Alma Redemptoris Mater, having been
taught it by his fellow :

than he song it wel and boldely

Fro word to word, according to the note,
Twise a day it passeth through his throte,
To scoleward and homeward when he went,
On Christ s mother set was all his entent.
As I haue said, throughout the iewry

This litel child, as he came to and fro,

Full merely then would he sing and cry,
O Alma redemptoris Mater, ever mo
The swetenesse hath his hert persed so
Of Christes mother, that to her to pray
He cannot stint of singing by the way.

The custom of singing our Ladye s anthems and hymns

by those who were on journeys, seems to have been very
common. Henry de Knyghton mentions that on one occasion
certain clerics on a journey being overtaken by a thunderstorm
as they were singing the Ava Maria Stella, were preserved
from danger by our Blessed Ladye. 63
The poor would sing the Salve Regina as they went about
in quest of alms. To this custom Sir Thomas More alludes.
After resigning the Chancellorship, and having dismissed his
retinue, he found his income so seriously diminished that he
called his family together and thus spake :

I have been brought vp at Oxford, at an Inne of Chancery,

"

at Lincoln s Inne, and also in the King s Courtes, and so forth,

from the lowest degree to the highest, and yet I have in yearly
reuenewes left me at this present little above one hundred
poundes by the yeare. So that now we must hereafter, if we
will live together, be content to become contributours to ech
63 For a good instance of the
Apud Twisden, Decent Scriptores, t. ii. p. 2368.
happy results attending on this practice, see Chronicle of Lanercrost, p. 31,
 The Saturday. 141

other ;
but by my counsell it shall not be best for us to fall to
the lowest fare first We will
not therefore descend to Oxford
fare, nor the fare of New Inne, but we will begin with Lincolne s
Inne dyet, where many right worshipful of good yeares do live
full if we find not our selues the first yeare able
well ; which,
to mayntayne, then will we the next yeare go one steppe
downe to New Inne fare, wherewith many an honest man is
well contented. Then if that exceed our abilityes will we the
next yeare after descend to Oxford fare, where many grave,
learned, and ancient doctours be continually resident, which
if our powers be not able to mayntayne neyther, then may we
yet with bagges and wallets go a-begging togeather, hoping
that for pitty some good people will giue vs their charity at
their door, to sing Salve Regina, and so still may keepe company
64
togeather, and be as merry as beggars."

In his confutation of Tyndall Sir Thomas says "that he

forbiddeth folk to pray to her (our Blessed Ladye), and specially
misliketh her deuoute anthem of Salve Rcgina! ^

THE SATURDAY.
Septima quaque dies quod sit sacrata Marice
Ccslitus ostendit pluribus ilia notis. m

Those who care to investigate the reason why Saturday was

dedicated to our Blessed Lady will find the question treated
67 68
of at length by Wichmans, Colverer, Benedict the Four
69 70
teenth, Trombelli, Justin of Miechow, 71 Locri, 72 Durandus, 73
and others.

61
Roper, The Mirrovre of Vertve in Worldly Greatnes or the Life of Syr Thomas t

More, Knight, sometime Lo. Chancellour of England. At Paris, MDCXXVI. p. 86, 88.
65
Opp. Edit. cit. p. 488.
66
Wickmans, Brabantia Mariana, vol. i. p. 134.
67
Wickmans, Sabbatismus Marianus, in quo Origo, Utilitas et Modus colendi
hebdomatim Sabbatum in honorem Sanctissim<z Deipara: explicantur. Antv 1628.
6S
Generates aut quotidians commemorationes B. M, in princip. Kalendarii
Mariani, c. vii. viii.
69
De Festis B.M. V. c. xviii.
70
De culto publico ab Ecclesia B. Marie exhibito. Dissertatio xviii.
71
Discursus prtcdicabiles super Litanias Lauretanas. Discursus CCXXXH.
1. xi. pp. 60, 6l. Neapoli, 1857.
72
Maria Augusta. Atrebati, 1608, 1. vi. c. xxiii,
73
Rationale divinorum Ojfftciorunt.
142 Devotions and Good Works.

The Sarum Missal gives five reasons why the Saturday is

dedicated to our Blessed Ladye. 74

Alcwine, in the distribution of the various offices which he
drew up for each day of the week, assigns the Saturday to our
Blessed Ladye. This he did for the Abbey of St. Vedastus,
and writing to the monks about the year 796 he says that he
has taken the Masses from our Missal, to which he has added
a Mass of our Ladye to be sung on some days. 75 And writing
to the monks of Fulda about the year 80 1, he tells them that
he has also sent them a Cartula Missalis, with a Mass of our
Blessed Ladye.
The Office of our Ladye, which the Council of Clermont,
A.D. 1094, required to be recited daily together with the Divine

Office, was ordained to be celebrated with solemnity on

70
Saturdays.
St. Godric, the hermit of Finchale, made it a custom every
Saturday to give an alms in our Ladye s honour." 77

In his beautiful farewell poem to Aran, St. Columbkille says

that
. . .
Angels come from Heaven,
To visit it every
day in the week,

and names the leading angel each day, but

Marye, Mother of the Son of God, comes,

And her train along with her,
And angels among her host,
To bless it on Saturday. 78

In all the Colleges of the Society of Jesus the Litanies of

our Ladye are solemnly sung on Saturdays. Those who have
lived in Rome will remember the Saturday instruction at the
Gesu in the chapel of Our Lady della Strada

74
Edit. Paris, 1554, f. xxiiii. in fine lib.
75
"Missas
quoque aliquas de nostro tali Missali. Postea sancta Dei
. . .

Genitricis semperque Virginis Mario; missam superaddidimus per dies aliquot, si alicui
placuerit, decantandam." Ep. li. Ad Monach. Vedastinos, opp. t. i. col. 215. Edit.
Migne.
76
Duranclus, Rationale, 1. vi. c. ii. n. vii. Edit. Barthelemy, v. iii. p. 106.
77 Libdhis de vita, &c. Surtees Soc. p. 358.
78
Archdall, Monasticon Hiberniatm, vol. ii.
pp. 192, 193. Edit. Dublin, 1876.
79
Cf. Sabbati del Gesu di Roma, mere
Esemfii della Madonna, Dal P. Giovanni
Rho. D.C.D.G. Bologna, 1694.
 The Angelus. 143

Becon, who sneers at all the practices of the Catholic Church,

mentions some of the old English customs, including a practice
for each day of the week.
"

on the Saterday cause a Masse to

Seventhly and finally,
be song or sayde in the honour of our Ladye and al vergines.
Ligten v. candles. Fede v poore men, or geue v almosses.
80
Jesu mercy. Lady help." These were evidently in honour
of the Five Joys of our Ladye.
In Scotland the same idea took a very practical form :

En Ecosse on voit le pieux roi Guillaume (I.) allie d Innocent

"

III., afin de donner une preuve de son amour pour 1 Eglise et

la Sainte Vierge ordonna que le pauvre peuple se reposerait
de ses travaux tous les Samedis depuis midi" (1202). 81
The singing of our Ladye s anthem at Magdalen College,
Oxon, on the Saturday, and other instances of old English
devotion to our Ladye on this day have been already noticed.

4. THE ANGELUS.
Vespere et mane et meridic clamabo et annuntiabo.
Psalm liv. 1 8.

The devotion called the Angelus, as it is now universally

recited, was unknown in Catholic England. It did not assume
its present form until towards the close of the sixteenth century,
and the earliest instance of it in this form with which I myself
have met, is in the Manuale Catholicorum of Blessed Peter
82
Canisius, S.J., printed in the year I588.
Pope John the Twenty-Second had made an order that each
evening at the pealing of the ignitegium the couvre-feu, or
curfew bell three Hail Maryes were to be recited and the Thir ;

teenth Canon of the Council of Paris in 1346 requires the unin

83
terrupted observance of this regulation.
In England it was the custom to say one Our Father and
five Hail Maryes, as is evident from the Mandate of Thomas
80
Reliques of Rome, p. 206, A.D. 1563.
81
Montalembert, Hist, de Ste. Elizabeth. Introd. Paris, 1861, p. 43.
82
Antv. ex off. Christoph. Plantini, p. 30.
83
Labbe, Cone. t. xiii. col. 1915. It is mentioned in the Acts of the Canonization of
St. Bonaventure that he exhorted his brethren to salute our Ladye when the bell rang
after Complin, since it is believed that the hour
angel saluted her at that (in fini Opusc.
Lugduni, 1619, p. 813).
144 Devotions and Good Works.

Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1399, issued at the

special desire of the King (Richard the Second) for the promo
tion of the greater veneration of the Mother of God, which

enjoins the ringing of the bell and the recitation of the same
prayers at the break of day as are said in the evening, viz.,
one Pater and five Aves, and gives a pardon of forty days,
to ties quo ties.**
The
following rubric appears in the flora of Sarum use of
85
1523 and I534-
Our holy father the pope Sixtus hath graunted at the
"

instaunce of the hyghe moost and excellent princesse elizabeth

late qwene of englonde and wyf to our souerayne lyege lorde
Kynge here the seuenth. god haue mercy on her swete soule
and all cristen soules, that euery day in the mornynge after, thre
tollynges of the ave bell say iii. times the hoole salutacyon of
our lady. Aue maria gratia plena, that is to say. at vj. the
clocke in the mornyng. iij. Ave maria. at. xij. the clocke at none,
iij.
Ave Maria. &
the clocke at euen for euery tyme so
at. vj.

doynge graunted of the spirituall tresour of holy chyrche.

is

iij. C. dayes of pardon totiens quotiens. And also our holy

father the archebysshop of cantorbery and yorke wit other
ix. bysshoppes of this reame haue graunted. iij. times in the day.
xl. dayes of pardon to all them that be I the state of grace able

to receue pardon / the whyche begonne the xxvi. daye of

Marche. Anno. M.CCCC.XCII. anno henrici vii. And the summe
of the indulgence & pardon for euery. Ave maria. viii. hondred

dayes &. Ix. toties quoties. Thys prayer shall be sayde at the
tollynge of the aue bell.
Snscipe verbum Virgo Maria quod tibi a Domino per angelnm
"

transmission est. Ave Maria ending, fructus ventris tui

. . .

Jesus. Amen.
"

Say thyss. iii.

tymes & afterwarde say thy col. (collect)

folowynge.
V. Dilexisti justitiam et odisti iniquitatem. R. Propterea
"

nnxit te Deus, Dens tuns oleo Icetitics prce consortibns tnis. oratio.
Dens qui de Beatce Maries Virginis litero, &c. Amen. Pater
noster. Ave Maria.
aue bell
"

Say thys prayer deuoutly at the tollinge of the

84
Wilkins, Concilia, torn. iii. pp. 246, 247.
85
In the Library of Stonyhurst College.
 The Angelus. 145

at none for a memory and remebraunce of the

passion and
deth ofcryste.
R. Tenebre facie sunt dnm crucifixissent iesum indei, et circa
"

Jioram nonam exdamavit iestis voce magna. Heli heli lamaza-

batJiani : hoc cst, Dens meus, dens meus vt quid me dereliquisti ;
et inclinato capite emisit
spiritnm. Time linns ex militibus lancea
latus ejns perforavit : et continue exivit sangnis et aqna. Et velnm
templi scissnm est a summo nsqne dcorsnm : et omnis terra tre-
mnit. Et inclinato capite emisit spiritnm.
"

V. Proprio filio sno non pepercit Dens.

R. Scd pro nobis omnibus tradidit ilium.
"

Oratio.
"

"

Domine Jcsn Christe jili Dei vivi qni pro salute mnndi in
crnce felle ct accto potatns cs : sicnt tn, consnmmatis omnibus in crnce

expirans, in manns patris commendasti spiritnm tnnm, sic in hora

mortis mee in manns tne pietatis commendo animam meam, nt
earn in pace snscipias, et in electornm tnorum cJwris
aggregari
precipias. Qni vivis, etc. Paternoster. Ave Maria."
Such was the old English form of the Angelus. 86
The bells which usually tolled the Angelus were called
Gabriel bells and Ave bells. Many yet exist, and may be
known by the appropriate inscriptions which they bear:

-}- Missi de cells habeo nomen Gabrielis,

87

at Welford, Berkshire ;

+ Personet hec cells dulcissime vox Gabrielis/ 8

at Misterton, Notts ;

-|- Gabriel ave, hoc in conclave nune pange suave, 89

formerly at St. John the Baptist, in the Maddermarket, Norwich,

and the like.

80
The prayers recited at the ringing of the Ave bell seem to have varied in
different countries. Cf. Hortulus Anime. Moguntii, 1511. The Manvale piarvm
orationvm ex antiqvis et Catholicis Patribus, in vsvm fiddium (per Patres Soc. Jesv.
revisvm emendatum et avctum. Venetiis, apud Juntas, 1572, f. 37) makes no mention
of the Angelus, but gives a form of prayers to be said at the morning, noon, and
evening bell ; those in the morning in memory of our Lord s Resurrection ; at noon
in memory of His Death ; and at the sound of the evening bell in memory of the
Incarnation.
87
Lukis, Church Bells, p. 63.
88
Ibid. p. 88.
89
Blomefield, Hist, of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 698. Vide ante, pp. 73, 74.
k
146 Devotions and Good Works.

Blomefield mentions one at Diss inscribed :

+ Sancte Gabriel ora pro nobis,

and adds call this the Kay being a corruption for

"

:
They bell,
90
the Gabriel In the Times of the 2ist December, 1876,
bell.

a correspondent mentions that the curfew bell is still rung at

Sandwich, in the county of Kent, as well as a bell at
5 o clock a.m. called the "Cow" bell. Is this a Kentish
corruption for the Gabriel bell ?

At King s Lynn the largest bell of the principal church is

still tolled at six o clock, both morning and evening, and serves
91
as a signal to labourers and artisans. I have been told that

a similar custom prevails at Great Billings in Northamptonshire.

These two bells hallowed with the sacred chrism and the blessings
of Holy Church still raise their notes, which in Catholic days
gladdened the ears alike of the rich and poor by reminding them
of the Incarnation, and inviting them to repeat to the Blessed
Mother of God the greeting of Hail full of Grace, first conveyed
to her by the Archangel Gabriel ex ore Altissimi, but those
sacred tones now principally fall on ears made deaf by heresy
and consequent ignorance, and are associated only with the com
mencement and end of the day s toil. Even to the gentle poet
Gray, the Gabriel bell only
Toll d the knell of parting day,

when the world was left to "darkness and to me ;"

whilst from
the venerable ivy-mantled church tower the moping owl made
her complaint to the moon of those who wandering near her
secret bower molest her ancient solitary reign. Certainly no
one in the ages of faith would have thought of calling the
house of God the "bower of the owl," or said that she alone
was to hold there "her ancient solitary reign."
In many places to this day the Gabriel bell rings out its joyous
notes from the church steeple in the evening, and the morning,
and at midday. Moreover to those who have any acquaintance
with the large manufacturing towns of England, it is well known
that hundreds of Catholic girls and young women lead the lives
of angels in those hotbeds of iniquity and vice, are shriven and
houselled weekly, preserve their white robe of baptismal inno-
90 Hist, of Norfolk, vol. i.
p. 14.
91
Promptorhnn Part iilontm, sub voce Curfu. Caimlen Society.
 The Beads. 147

cence unstained and a spotless reputation. They turn the factory

bells to good account, and to their pealing at six, twelve, and
six o clock, they respond by reciting the Angelus.
I may observe that in the list of Indulgences granted by
Gregory the Thirteenth for all places beyond the Alps, the
Angelus at noon is not mentioned "13. Qui B. M. Vir- : . . .

ginem mane et vespere sahitaverit"^-

5. THE BEADS.
THE AVE-PSALM-PSALTER.
Omnis homo omni hora
Ipsam ora, et implora
Ejus patrocinia,
Psalle, psalle, nisit Mo
Cordis, oris, voce, voto,
AVE PLENA GRATIA.
93
Portiforhtm ad H stint Sarum.

The Hail Marye two parts,

in its present form, consisting of
salutation and
petition, was not used in England before the
94
year I53I- Towards the end of the fifteenth century some
words of petition began to be added to the salutation after the
name of Jesus, as the Myronre of our Ladye says :
"

Some say
at the begynnyng of this salutacyon Aue benigne lesu, and
some saye after, Maria Mater del,with other addycyons at the
ende also. And such thinges may be sayde when folke saye
theyr Aues of theyr owne devocyon. But in the seruyce of the
chyrche, I trowe it be moste sewer and moste medefull to obey
to the comon use of saynge, as the chyrche hathe set, without
95
all such addicions."

The mention of the Hail Marye as a salutation in

earliest

daily use is made by Baldwin, who became Bishop

of Worcester
in 1 1 80, and Archbishop of Canterbury four years later. These
are his words :

92
Public Record Office, Dom. Eliz. Addit. vol. xxv. n. 66 (Records of English
Catholics, Douay Diaries. London, 1878, pp. 366, 367).
03
Edit. A.D. 1551, e sequentiis Misse quolidiane B.M.V. These lines are from
the hymn Hodierna lux diet, attributed by the Saga to St. Thomas of Canterbury,
See infra, p. 152. For the hymn see Mone, vol. ii. p. 53.
94
Sarum Breviary, Paris, 1531.
95
Early English Text Society, p. 79.
148 Devotions and Good Works.

Huic Angelica qua per singulos dies

salutationi, says he,
Beatissimam Virginem ea qua datur devotiom salutamus, adjicere
solemus "

et benedictus fmctus vcntris tui," qnam dausiilam

Elizabeth post, a Virgine salntata, quasi finem Angelica salu-
et
tationis repetcns adjecit, diccns, Benedicta tn inter midieres,
benedictus ventris tui. Hie est ille fructus de quo Isaias
fmctus
dicit: In germen Domini in magnificentia et gloria,
ilia die erit
96
et frnctns terra sublimis (iv. 2).

Used as an antiphon, the first part of the Hail Marye is

found at a much earlier date in the Mass of the Fourth Sunday

of Advent, which given in the Sacramentale of St. Gregory.
is

The Hail Marye, still only as a salutation, was ordered to be

recited after the Our Father in Divine Office by the Council of
Paris, A.D. Therefore, when Dr. Rock speaks of the Hail
1195.
Marye as unknown in England before the year 1172, it is

that he denies
perhaps only doing him justice to suppose
its
97
use in the sense of a prayer formally recognized by the Church.
of Scripture in general,
Speaking of the Catholic versions
and of Dr. Challoner s translation in particular, Cardinal Wise
man observes that
"

There isanother alteration of more importance, especially

when it is considered in reference to the present times, and the
influence it has had upon established forms of Catholic speech.
In the first edition, in conformity to Catholic usage in England,
the word Dominus is almost always translated by Our Lord.
The amended text changed the pronoun into an article, and
says The Lord. In the Ave Maria Catholics have always, till
lately, been accustomed to say, Our Lord is with thee; as it

is inthat version, and as it was always used in England, even

before that translation was made. But, in conformity with the
change of the text, we have observed of late a tendency to
introduce into the prayer a similar variation, and to say, The
Lord is with thee a change which we strongly deprecate as
:

stiff, cantish, destructive of the unction which the prayer

breathes, and of that union which the pronoun inspires between
the reciter and her who is addressed. We have no hesitation
96 Tractatits de Angelica Salutatione. Patrol. Lat. t. cciv. col. 469. Edit. Migne.
97 For a of the Hail Marye, see Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. iii.
fuller history
for an exhaustive
pp. 314320; also, Act. SS. ad diem, 16 Oct. pp. 11081113,
article on the subject ; also Coppenstein, O.T., Clams pradicandi rosarium, Heiclel-

burgoe, 1630, cap. xii.

 The Beads. 149

insaying that this difference, trifling as many will consider it,

expresses strongly the different spirits of our and other religions.
It has never been the custom of the Catholic Church to say,
The Redeemer, the Saviour, the Lord, the Virgin Redemptor ;

nosier, Dominus nosterj and so

*
our Saviour, our Lord, our
Lady, are the terms sanctioned, and, therefore, consecrated by
Catholic usage since the time of the Fathers. We own it grates
our ears and jars upon our feelings to hear the former essentially
un-Catholic forms used by preachers and writers they want ;

affection they are insipid, formal they remind us of Geneva

; ;

caps, and smack of predestination. The Rheims translators

have explained their reason for their translation in a note
(P- 585), as follows : We Catholics must not say The Lord, but
Our Lord ; as we say Our Lady for His Mother, not The Lady.
Let us keep our forefathers words, and we shall easily keep
our old and true faith, which we had of the first Christians.
Nor is such a modification of the word Dominus peculiar to
the English Catholics the Syriac version, and after it the
;

Syriac Church, calls Christ not simply moryo, the Lord," but
moran, our Lord, even where the Greek has 6 Kvpiog. If, there
fore, it be considered too great a departure from accuracy in
translation to restore the pronoun in the text of our version,
let us at least preserve it in our instructions, and still more
in our formularies of prayer." 98
The year 1216 is generally given as the date of the "inven

or, as it is now called, the Rosary

"

tion of the Psalter of our

Blessed Ladye.
The word psalterium, or psalter, from -vJ/aXr^/oi/ literally a
musical instrument of ten strings,

in psalterio decent chordarum psallite^

is used by the Fathers as a term for the hundred and fifty

psalms of King David thus St. Augustine describes the Psalms
:

as Codex Psalmonun qui Ecclesicz consuctudine Psalterium nun-

cupatur.
m
This term Psalter is also applied to three different forms of
devotion to our Blessed Ladye, which are :

i. A
prayer consisting of one hundred and fifty strophes,
98
Essays on Various Subjects, vol. i. pp. 76, 77.
ou Psalm 10
xxxii. 2. In Psalm cxviii. Opp. t. iv. col. 1501. Edit. Migne.
150 Devotions and Good Works.

each beginning with Ave, and with each of which a verse from
one of the psalms is worked up. This is the earliest form of
these Ladye-Psalters which are numerous the stanzas of the ;

later ones of this class commence with Ave, but are not com

posed from the Psalms. The former I shall call the Ave-Psalm-
Psalters; the latter, the Ave-Psalters, merely to distinguish
them.
2. The second form, in chronological order, of the Ladye-
Psalters consists of one A
hundred and fifty vcs, i.e., the Angelical
Salutation, or prayer Hail Marye, &c., and fifteen Our Fathers.
It is called the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Marye, says Sixtus
the Fourth, in his Constitution Ea qua, of the Qth of May, 1478,
because it contains as many Angelical Salutations as there are
101
psalms in the Psalter of David. This is the explanation
usually given, but it points to an earlier meaning, and the
invention of this form of the Ladye-Psalter is generally attri
buted to St. Dominic. To distinguish it from the others, I shall
call it the Bead-Psalter.
3. The Ladye-Psalter is the abbreviated
third form of

paraphrase of David, in honour of our Ladye, which is attributed

to St. Bonaventure, the disciple of the renowned Alexander
of Hales. 102 This Psalter does not enter into my argument.
St. Bonaventure also composed an Ave-Psalter, which is called
his Psalterium mmits. m
From what has been said it would appear that the Ave-
Psalm-Psalter was the original of the Bead-Psalter, or Rosary,
so that this was rather a simplification of an existing form of
prayer than a completely new invention. The word Psalter
necessarily implies some connection with the Psalms of David.
St. John Damascene, who died
in the year 780, composed,

Annunciation, a homily which contains the

for the festival of the

mystic numbers 15 and 150. The exordium is composed of

fifteen sentences, of which the last ends with these words :

"

Hail, full of grace, our Lord is with thee ;

blessed art thou
104
amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."
The Homily itself consists of one hundred and fifty salu-

501
Bullarium Komaniim. Romas, 1743, t. iii.
pt. i.
pp. 172, 173.
102
Act. SS.t. iii. Julii, ad diem 14, p. 781.
103
Opusc. t. i.
p. 499,
104
Opp. Edit. F. P, Mich, Lequien, Orel. Fr, Prsed. Paris, 1742, t. ii.

pp. 835841,
 The Beads. 151

tations or greetings of our Ladye, each of them beginning with

or /alpoi:.
;///>
Therefore evidence exists that in the eighth
century John Damascene saluted our Ladye with 150 Avcs ;
St.
and also that the Hail Marye, in its then form, was not unknown
to him. Still the Aves of the Homily were not 150 Hail Maryes.

Having traced the familiar Rosary to the Avc-Psalui-Psalter,

we must next inquire, who was the first in the West to compose
an Ave-Psalm-Psalter ? It is a satisfaction to find that this
glory belongs to one of two names illustrious in English history
St. Anselm or St. Thomas of Canterbury.
St. Anselm entered the Order of St. Benedict in the year
1060. He became Prior of Bee in 1063, Abbot of the same

abbey in 1078, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, and died in

1109. Whilst at Bee he composed many prayers for the use

of his friends, and at their request. 105 In one of his letters to
Gundulf he mentions a long prayer in three parts to our Ladye
which he had thus composed. 106 Eadmer, his biographer, does
not state what these prayers were but amongst them Gerberon ;

gives an Ave-Psalm-Psalter.
107
MS. of the year 1200 in the A
British Museum gives another Ladye-Psalter with the name of
St. Anselm ;
108
and a second MS. of the same date contains one
without his name. 109 But the text of neither agrees with the
version of Gerberon.
The Saga of St. Thomas of Canterbury says :

"

He was of all men the first to find, as far as hath become

known here in the north, how to draw some meditation out of
every psalm in the Psalter, out of which meditations he after*
wards made of praise verses to our Ladye. Following his
example, Stephen Langton did the same in England, and later
still the same was done by three masters in the west of Scotland,
110
at the request of Queen Isabel."

This evidence leaves no doubt as to the origin of the Ave-

"

Psalm-Psalter of our Ladye. Moreover, these verses of praise

"

103
Act. SS. t. ii. Aprilis, ad diem 21, p. 896.
108 Patrol. Lat. vol. clviii. Edit. Migne,
Opp. t. i.
Epist. xx. col. 1086.
107
Ibid.
108
Arundel, 157.
109 Cott. MS. Titus, A. xxi.
110
Thomas Saga Erkibyskups, or a Life of Archbishop Thomas Becket, in
Icelandic, with English translation, notes, and glossary. Edited by Eirikr Magnusson,
sub-librarian of the University Library, Cambridge, 1875, pp. 20 23. Rolls Edit.
152 Devotions and Good Works.

made from the Psalter show by their very name of Psalter that

they were to be sung, whereas the Bead-Psalter of St. Dominic

was composed for recitation a most essential difference, for the
;

word psalter necessarily implies psalmody and music conse ;

quently a Psalter of one hundred and fifty Hail Maries is a

misnomer, and evidently refers to the earlier form of the
devotion.
But it will at once be objected to me, on the faith of Herbert
of Bosham, that St. Thomas had never learned to make verses. In
the sense of hexameters and pentameters and odes in Horatian
metres,
111
granted. But St. Thomas had composed the hymn
of the Seven Joys of our Ladye and no greater scholarship ;

was required for the composition of the Ave-Psalm-Psalter. 112

Secondly. Why do not his other biographers refer to it?
and how is it that the Ave-Psalm-Psalter is attributed to
St. Anselm ?

What is stated is this, viz., that St. Thomas habitually used

a book containing prayers composed by his
predecessor,
113
St. Anselm; and nothing ismore probable than that St.
Thomas had written, or caused to be transcribed, in thisvery
book the verses which he had composed in praise of our Ladye.
It is equally probable that in course of time these verses may
have been considered as the production of St. Anselm, and in
consequence, attributed to him.
But the Saga proves the widely-spread early belief on the
subject.
This is the earliest Ave-Psalm-Psalter, which I take to be

111
Qui versificandi nee etiam sub scholari disciplina artem attigisset, vel in modico.
Herib. de Boseham, Vita S. T/ioma, 1. v. cap. xxx. Patrol. Lat, t. cxc. col. 1248.

Edit. Migne.
112
Father Morns mentions that St. Thomas is not known to have left any
writings, except his letters, and that the hymn of our Ladye s Seven Joys is attributed
to him (Life and Martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket, p. 383). The Saga, on the
other hand, says it is also averred by all folk that the blessed Thomas composed the
Prose, Imperatrix gloriosa, and another, a lesser one, Hodierna lux did (I.e.). Cf.
Mone, vol. ii.
pp. 53, 78.
us \vhen Mass is being sung through down to the Gospel, he readeth the
prayers which his predecessor Archbishop Anselm of blessed memory had composed
(Thomas Saga, &c. cap. xx. p. 103). Et frequentius ea hora habebat in manibus
"

quemdam orationum libellum quern unus prsedecessorum suorum beatus Anselmus, . .

&c. ( Vita S. Th. Cant. Archiep. et Mart, ab anonymo quodam scriptore ex aliorum
scriptis compilata. Patrol. Lat. t. cxx. col. 356. Edit. Migne).
 The Beads. 153
the one mentioned in the it sometimes appears
Saga, although
with the name of St. Anselm.

1. Ave Mater advocati,

Qui beatus concilia,
Aula ventris incorrupti,
Processit ut ex thalamo.
Beatus vir qui non abiit in concilio impiorum, et in via
peccatorum non
stetit, et in cathedra pestilential non sedit (Psalm i. i).

2. Ave Mater, cujus parties

Postulavit Deum Patron,
Et accepit, quas redemit
Gentes in hcsreditatem.
Postula a me et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam, et possessionem
tuam terminos terras (Psalm ii.
8).

And in like manner,

through the Psalms. Some few of the
strophes consist of eight lines.
I have not been able to meet with the Psalter
composed by
Archbishop Stephen Langton, A.D. 1207 1228. St. Edmund
of Canterbury wrote one, the introduction of which commences :

A Maria Mater pia,

O Benigna, laude digna,
Plena Dei lumine.
Me dignare te laudare
Verbis dignis, sanctis hymnis
Et psalmorum carmine.

Then the Ave-Psalter begins.

Ave virgo, lignum mite,

QUCE dedisti lignum vita
Salutis fidelium.

Genuisti Christum Jesum,

Sed pudoris non est Icesitm
Nee defiexit folium.
I have found no traces of the Ladye-Psalm-Psalters com
posed, according to the Saga, by the three unnamed masters in
the west of Scotland. 114

14
Cf. Mone, vol. ii. pp. 233260, who gives several Ave-Psalters and Psalm-
Psalters, some beginning with Ave, others not, e.g.,
Beatus vir, qui in lege mcditatur,
de Maria quid dicatur
qua regina coronatur,
dum in cxlo collocatur.

(From a MS. of the fifteenth century, p. 253.)

154 Devotions and Good Works.

This Ave-Psalm-Psalter was not suited for general popular

use and in the time of St. Anselm and St. Thomas of Canter
;

bury, the Ave, as a prayer, was not known whereas in Spain ;

it had been in use from the ninth century, and consequently

could not but have been most familiar to St. Dominic Gusman ;

and he was "thinking out under the

at the very time that

inspiration of the Holy Ghost" an easy method of prayer,

St. Mary of Oignies, who died on the 23rd of June, A.D. 1213,
was in the habit of reciting the whole Psalter standing, and she
used to say a Hail Marye on her knees at the end of each
Psalm. 115 This early adaptation of the Hail Marye to the
Psalter probably would not have been recorded if it had not
been somewhat unusual.
The evidence adduced goes to show that the composition
and use of these Ave-Psalm-Psalters and Ave-Psalters origi
nated in England and therefore that the original seed of the
;

Beads or Rosary germinated in the Dower of our Ladye long

anterior to the days of St. Dominic.

METHOD OF RECITING THE PSALTER.

I think there can be no reasonable doubt that, in what he

wrote of the modes of reciting the beads, Alan de Rupe has

recorded the traditional practice of his order in that regard.
He compiled his Compendium for the use of the Members of
the Confraternity of the Rosary, and says that St. Dominic
taught the following method of reciting the Psalter, which was
revealed to him by our Blessed Lady ;
to wit, that the first

quinquagene should commemorate the articles of the Incarnation

of our Lord the second, those of the Passion and the third,
; ;

Another commences
Ave Virgo virgin am
per quam vir beatus
visitavit nos miseros,
tiobis ex te natus
tuis mater meritis
nosiras miseratus
releva miserias
felix advocatus.
(P- 257).
15
Totum psalterium super pcdes stando, legens, per singulos psahnos flexis genii/us,
Beattz Virgini Salutationem Angelicam offerebat (Act. SS. t. v. Junii, p. 553, ad
diem 23. Edit. Palme. Cf. Vincent of Beanvais, Specuhim Historiale> 1. xxx.

cap. xxiv; Benedict XIV. Votum, ubi. sup.).

 The Beads. 155

those of His Resurrection and Glory, meditating on one article

at each Hail Marye. The quinquagenes may be repeated together
or separately, one in the morning, a second at noon, and a
third in the evening, or as can best and most conveniently be
110
arranged. Another method, also drawn up by St. Dominic
and several are mentioned is propounded by Michael de
Insula. Prescribing the use of the Psalter to a nun, the saint
desired her to recite the first quinquagene in thanksgiving for
the Incarnation, meditating on the infancy and childhood of
our Lord the second in memory of the Passion, meditating
;

on the principal scenes of it and the third for the remission

;

of her sins, past, and daily ones, invoking the assistance of her
117
patron saints.
Alan de Rupe proposes many other methods. All the
different writerson the subject are agreed that the pious God-
gifu, Countess of Mercia, is the first who is recorded to have
recited her prayers upon a string of beads or gems, 118 that is,
on beads strung upon a cord but no trace exists of what
these prayers were. St. Godric used stones for the same
119
object, but Reginald, his biographer, has not recorded whether
they were strung on a cord, or loose after the manner of the
solitaries of the desert No mention of the Psalter of our
Ladye is made in the Ancreii Riwle ; although at the end of
the Alma Redemptoris Devotion
in the of the Five Psalms it
prescribes: "Here say fifty or a hundred Aves, more or less,
120
according as you have time."
Apart from the evidence of
the Paternostrers in London of the year 1277-8, the earliest
trace of the Bede-Psalter of our England with which
Ladye in
I have met is in the life of Robert of Winchelsey, Archbishop
of Canterbury, who died A.D. 1295. Stephen Birchington, his
biographer, describes his great love of our Blessed Ladye, and
says that as soon as he had finished his daily occupations he
116
Compendium Psalterii Beatissime Triititatis, Magistri Alani de Rupe ordinis
Predicatorum. Colonie, 1479, ca P- P- 3-
"

117
Quodlibet de utilitate fratcrnitatis rosarii sen psalterii beate marie virginis
conventtts coloniensis ordinis prcdicatorum provinciatus colonie. In scola arcium
tempore quodlibetorum. Anno M.CCCC.LXXVI. per fratrem michaelem dc insula
sacre theologie professorem ejusdem ordinis. Colonie, 1479, p. 35-
118
S. p. 24. Of course I do not take the Mohammedan practice into considera
tion, and therefore need not inquire into its antiquity.
119
Libelhis, &c., ubi sup,
120
P, 43-
156 Devotions and Good Works.
121
invariably recitedthe Angelical Salutation on his fingers.
This seems to imply that the Archbishop said his beads in this
manner, for the practice to which allusion is made was certainly
adopted as a convenient mode of computation. William of
Waynflete always recited his beads on bended knees.
It is admitted that the Bead-Psalter of our Ladye had
fallen into almost total disuse on the Continent, prior to the
121a
revival of the Confraternity at Cologne in the year 1475 ;

whereas in England it was the popular devotion to our Ladye,

and its use universal with all classes. This is satisfactorily

proved by numberless wills and inventories of the fourteenth

and fifteenth centuries. One remarkable feature in these wills
is, that in the very minute description which the testators give

Our Fathers are often called Gawdyes.

of their beads, the
Now term Gaudye gives clue to what, in my mind, was
this
the general manner of saying the beads in England. They
were said in honour of our Ladye s Five or Fifteen Joys,
according as one or three quinquagenes were recited. Indeed,
Michael de Insula says that the old books of devotion contain
the Fifteen Joys of our Ladye, in honour of which these fifteen
Pater nosters may be referred, since they are followed by ten
Aves.
The Sarum Manuals and Prymers contain the following
method of saying the Rosary, which is often to be found in
MS. and printed Horce of our Ladye both in England and
abroad. It is described as a Compendium of the Life of Jesus,
and is called the Golden Rosary.

Suscipe rosarium, Virgo, dcauratum :

Jesu per compendium vita decoratum.

Ave Maria fructus ventris tui.
. . . Amen.
Quern virgo carens vitio deflamine concepisti,
Dum Gabrieli nuntio humillime consentisti.
Ave Maria.

121
per numerum dignitorum suorum, quocumque
"

Salutationem Angelicam . . .

se diverteret, "

semper dixit (Wharton, Anglia Sacra, t. i. p. 13.)

13I
a Coppenstein,De fral. tosarii, capp. xvi. xviii. Heidelbergae, 1269.
182
M. deInsula says fifteen Aves, which must be a misprint. Solent eciam in
antiquis libris devocionalibus scribi quindecim Virginis gaudia in quorum honorem
hec quindicem Pater nosier
referre possent quia eis eciam XV Ave Maria svperadduntur
(Quodlibet, p. 40). Possibly fifteen may refer to decades.
 The Name of Beads. 157

Quo impregnata citius cognatam visitasti;

Johannemque celerius in venire sanctificasti.
Ave Maria. 123
and so on throughout the five decades. This rosary could be
sung, like the original Ave-Psalm-Psalter.
Another form given in the Sarum Hore of our Ladye of
1512 consists of an addition to each Ave after the name Jesus
Christus, thus :

A ve Maria . . . ventris tui Jesus Christus, Quern de Spiritu

Sancto, Angela nunciante, concepisti.
Ave Maria . . .
Jesus Chris tus, Quo concepto in montana
perrexisti^
There one remarkable fact connected with the Bead-
is

Psalter of our Ladye, and its division into mysteries by St.

Dominic. The Black Friars were numerous and popular in
this country. They had eighty-six houses in England, Wales,
125
Scotland, and Ireland, yet, so far as my researches enable
me to speak, there is not the slightest trace of the Dominican

arrangement or distribution of the Rosary into mysteries, as it

now exists, to be found in England prior to the great apostacy.
Indeed, I doubt very much whether the actual arrangement of
the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries is to be found
in any printed book prior to the year 1560. Moreover, I have
never found any trace of the Confraternity of the Psalter or
Rosary in Catholic England.

THE NAME OF BEADS.

I thought King Henry had resembled thee
In courage, courtship, and proportion :

But all his mind is bent to holiness

To number Ave-Maries on his Beads.

Queen Margaret to Suffolk.

Henry the Sixth, Part ii. Act i. Scene 3.

Bead or Bede is, as I presume every educated Englishman

knows, an Anglo-Saxon word, bidde or beade, which means a
123
Mone, Hymni Latini, xx. vol. pp. 263 265. He also gives other forms,
ii.

but none are older than the fifteenth century (ibid. pp. 266, 267). Hore beatissime
Virg. Maria; secdm. usum Sarum. Paris, 1526, f. xlviii,and several others of various
years (Stonyhurst Library). The same is given in the Hore of our Ladye ad usum
Romanum, printed in Paris in 1522.
124
F. cxcvii (Stonyhurst Library).
lss
Echard, Scriptores Ord. Pradicator. Paris, 1719, t, i. ff. x, xi.
158 Devotions and Good Works.

prayer, and is derived from biddan or beodan, to pray in German ;

beten, hence the response in the Litanies, in German

bete filr

nns, and in Flemish, bid voor ons. Consequently, to bid one s

beads is the old form of expressing to say one s prayers. Thus in
Piers Plouliman :

Ich bidde my bedis.

And an English hymn to our Ladye of about the year 1430 runs
thus :

Heil be thou marie that art flour of alle,

As roose is eerbir so reed !

To the, ladi, y clepe and calle,

To the y make my beed. 120

The Promptorium Parvulorum, A.D. 1400, gives bede or

1
bedys, nnmeralia, deprecula ; bede or prayer, oracio, supplicacio^
Hence the term Bede or Bead-roll, a list of persons to be prayed
for ;
Bedesmen were those who prayed
for their benefactors and

others, and in Catholic days a most common form of subscribing

letters was "your poor bedesman" or
"

bedeswoman."

writers assign the devotion of the beads of our Ladye

Many
to the early ages of Christianity, and say that Venerable Bede

greatly propagated and derive the word beads from him

it ;
!

Heath suggests with more plausibility that Venerable Bede

received his name from his assiduity at prayer. Mabillon also
conjectures that bead might be derived from beltis^
This has reference to one of the Canons of the Council of
Celchyth or Chalkhyth, A.D. 816, respecting obsequies of bishops,
which contains the following words Et septem beltidum Pater :

noster pro eo cantetur ; the meaning of which is evidently Let :

"

129
the Our Father be sung seven times for him." This has been
120
Early English Text Society, vol. xxiv. 1867, p. 6.
Edited for the Camden Society by Albert Way, M.A.
127

128 ft
j[ uc jj torquent quod Rosarium apud Anglos Bedes nomine appellatur tan-
"

quam a Bede auctore. At potuit alia de causa sic vocari puta in beltide (Pnef. in
Ssep. V. Act. SS. O.S.B. n. 125). It is remarkable that Alan de Rupe (Compendittm,

cap. vii.), Michael de Insula (Quodlibet, p. 33), Juan de Lopez (Rosario

de Nitestra
Seiiora, Salamanca, 1589, fol. lob), Coppenstein (B. Alani de Rupe redivivi Apologia,
Neapoli, 1632, part i. p. 20, and part ii. p. 86), all Dominican writers on the Rosary,

attribute the propagation of the Psalter of our Lady to Venerable Bede. Bucelin,
Cf. also
O.S.B. (Chronologia Benedictino- Mariana, p. 43) follows their opinion.
Libellus perutilis de fraternitate sanctissima Rosarii et Psalterii beats Marie Virginis,

Auguste Vindelicorum, 1507, pp. 86, 87.

12<J

Labbe, torn. vi. col. 1588.

 The Name of Beads. 159

strangely misunderstood and misconstrued by Benedict the

130 131 132 133 134
Fourteenth, Spelman, Grancolas, Butler, Rock, and
others, who take it to mean Let seven belts of Pater Hosiers
:
"

be sung for him." The Bollandists saw the difficulty, and

135
finally gave it up as inexplicable. Haddan and Stubbs have
hit upon the most probable meaning; 136 and hence it appears
that the theory of the Anglo-Saxon "belts of Pater nosters"
cannot for a moment be supported."
The practice of counting prayers by stones is a very old one.
Palladius mentions that the hermit Paul used to recite three
hundred Pater nosters every day, which he counted by as many
little pebbles he also speaks of a penitent lady who daily
;

recited seven hundred, and of the Abbot Macarius who recited

one hundred. 137 The earliest example of counting prayers by
beads strung on a cord is that of Lady Godgifu, who bequeathed
the celebrated string of gems, which she used for that purpose,
to the Image of Our Ladye of Coventry. 138 But there is no clue
as to what the prayers were which she thus recited. 139 St. Godric,
who died in 1172, counted his usual prayers by stones, but
Reginald, his biographer, describes neither the prayers, nor
whether the lapides calculares were strung on a cord. 140

130
Votum, written A. D. 1726; Analecta Juris Fontificii, torn. ii. col. 1398. He
gives another reading triginta diebus canonicis horis ex plena synaxi quoting from
Hen. Kelmann (Spelman), torn. i. Condi. Anglor. p. 331 ; but Spelman, whom I
havetested, gives the same text as Labbe. Possibly the Analecta may have made a
typographical error.
131
Glossarium, sub voce beltis.
1:!2
Annales Liturgiques, vol. ii. p. 418.
133
Lives of tlie Saints, vol. x. p. 24, note. Dublin, 1780.
134
Church of our Fathers, vol. iii. p. 8.
135
Act. SS. ad diem 4 Aug. p. 232. How can septem beltidiim be the nominative
to cantettir ?
138
They say of beltidum: "This word is explained by Spelman as meaning a
Rosary, but Ducange remarks that Rosary is of much later invention. Schilter pro
posed to read betlidum, and explain it of the singing of prayers from biddan to pray,
and leoth a song. It seems now natural to derive the word from Bel
(Anglo-Saxon)
a bell, and Tid (Anglo-Saxon) time, and explain it in reference to the seven
Canonical Hours at which the prayer bell rang" (Councils and Ecclesiastical Docu
ments, Oxford, 1871, vol. tii. p. 585, note).
127
Hist. Laiisiaca, cap. xxiii. Sozomena has the same, lib. vi. cap. xxiv.
138
S. pp. 24, 25.
139
An inter orationes illas,
quas tactis singulis circuit gemmeis globulis recitabat
Galdina (Godgifu), censenda sit salutatio Deipanz Virginis non satis liquet (Mabillon,
Act. SS. O.S.B. sxc. v. prsef. n. 126).
140
Libellits de vita et miraculis S. Godrici, p. 225. Surtees Soc,
160 Devotions and Good Works.

In progress of time the little round balls strung together

for this purpose became named beads, hence the origin of the
term.

THE NAME OF ROSARY.

Ave, salve, gaude, vale,
O Maria ! non vernale
Serf de Rosis spiritale
Tibi plecto nunc crinale
De Rosarum flosculis.
St. Bernard. 141

The name Rosary was never applied to the Beads themselves,

but exclusively to the devotion. It was not known in England
in the beginning of the fifteenth century, according to the
1 **
Promptorium Parvnlorum.
In his will, dated A.D. 1385, Sir William Wai worth, the loyal
143
Mayor of London, mentions unum Rosarium ; but the word
occurs in the list of his books. Rosarium was a very common
title forbooks, and as such, dates certainly from the thirteenth
century. A
celebrated Rosarium was composed by Arnold de
Villanova, in Catalonia, a renowned physician, and doctor to
144
Pope Boniface the Eighth A.D. 1294 I3O3. Chaucer refers to
it in the tale of the Chanon s yeman :

Lo thus saith Arnold of the new toun

As his rosarie maketh mencion. 145

Guy de Archdeacon of Bologna, composed a commentary

Basic,
on the Decrees, called Rosarium; and the inventory of the
Cathedral of Aberdeen taken in 1436 enumerates a copy of it :

Rosarium archidiaconi super Decretum I have a Rosarium

sermonum predicabilium, by Bernardine de Busti. 148

The term Rosary, however, as applied to the devotion of the
beads was originally used to designate a third part, or five
141 268 ; but his version gives a different reading.
Mone, Hymni Latini, vol. ii. p.
142
Rose, rosa, Rosiere (rosiziere), Rosetum, a bed of roses.
143
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p. 136.
7149, for two
144
Catalogue of MS. in the Bibliotheque at Paris, nn. 7147,
Cf.
codices of this work.
145
Opp. fol. 61. Edit. 1602.
146
Hain, n.
2715.
147
Registrum Aberdonense. Spalding Club, p. 130.
148
Cf. also Man. Angl. torn. vi. p. 1362, for a Rosarium amongst the books at
Windsor, in the list taken in the 8th of Richard II. 1384, 1385.
 Other Names. 161

decades of the Psalter :

consequently a Psalter was composed
of three Rosaries. The name of Psalter has become obsolete,
and is replaced by that of Rosary, which is now accepted in the
same sense as Psalter formerly was. The Confraternity of the
Rosary in France was known as that of the Sertnm or CJiaplct

OTHER NAMES.
Psalter is the original name applied by Alan de Rupe,
Michael de Insula, and others to the Beads, and was used in
150
England until the days of the so-called Reformers. Rosary
I have already explained.
Patriloquium and Patriolum are
alsotwo early names for the Beads. 151 Sertnm is the Latinized
form of the French Qiaplet, corresponding with the Flemish
Roosencrans, or Roosenhoet a chaplet of roses. Capellina also
occurs. 153 These, however, were not employed in England.
Paternosters, Bedes,Preciil<e, Par precnlarinn, or precnm, were
the common terms in England.

PATERNOSTERS.
This appears to have been the primitive appellation of the
Beads in England it was also used on the Continent.
;

In France it sometimes appears as Patenotre. Benedict

the Fourteenth 154 and Ducange 155 quote examples from a
Compotus, A.D. 1333 to 1336.
English evidence is of an earlier date. The making of bead-
psalters was a considerable trade, and the tradesmen exercising
this craft were called In the year 1277-8,
Paternostrcrs.
mention occurs in the Rolls of the City of London of Roger
de Bury, Paternostrer Richard le Bryd, Paternostrer
;
and ;

John Grethened, Paternostrer. They would, probably, be

149
Quodlibet, p. 20.
to be nad in Churches in the time of the
150
Certain Sermons or Homilies appointed
late Queen Elizabeth. Oxford, 1840. Third part of Sermon on Good Works, p. 52.
151
Act. SS.\.. i.
April. Pp. 107, 121.
152
Sasbout, Dictionaire Flameng-Francoys. Anvers, 1576.
153
Act. SS. t. ii. Mart. P. 244.
154
Votum, n. 42, apud Analeda Juris Pontif. t. ii. c. 1395.
155
Glossarium, sub voce.
1 62 Devotions and Good Works.

residing in Paternoster Lane.

156
And in the year 1295 William
le Paternostrer occurs.
157
In 1317 I find mention of one pair
158
of paternostres of pearls, value twenty shillings. I may remark

that this is the earliest English evidence respecting the Beads

with which I have met.
By dated August 2, 1400, Richard, Lord Scrope of
his will,

Bolton, leaves to his most dear son and heir a pair of pater
nosters of coral, which formerly belonged to my lord father, as
"

well as a cross of gold, which I have used and worn with the ;

blessing of Almighty God, of the Most Glorious Virgin Marye,

159
St. Anne, All Hallows, and mine own."
Roger, Lord Scrope of Bolton, was the son and heir men
tioned as the legatee of the paternosters of coral he was thus ;

the third to whom they had descended in succession, and by

his will, dated September 23, 1403, he, using the words of his
father s will, bequeaths the pair of paternosters to his son and
heir Richard. 160 This is evidence of the reverence and value
in which a pair of beads were held in Catholic England,

descending from father to son for four generations. If the

pocula pat rum trita labiis were valued by the pagans in the
days of old, what wonder that a pair of beads, worn away,
patrum digitis, in our Ladye s honour, should be highly prized
by a succession of her devout liegemen ?

PRECULsE, PAR PRECULARVM, PAR PRECUM.

These names are of very frequent occurrence, and the four
volumes of Yorkshire wills, and the Wills of the northern
counties are full of examples. The Promptorium Parvulorum
gives for bedes or bedys numeralia, depreculce ; and the will of
Lady Jane Haselrigg, dated December i, 1400, contains a
bequest of imuni par precnlum, Anglice, bedys-
A
par precnm, however, does not always mean a pair of
beads consisting of five decades it is used as well for the
;

iss
Memorials of London and London Life in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Cent. Extracted from the Early Archives of the City of London. By
H. T. Riley, M.A. Published by order of the Corporation of London, 1868, p. 20.
157
Ibid. p. 30.
158
Ibid. p. 124.
159
Test. Ebor. vol. i. p. 275.
160
Ibid. p. 329.
361
Ibid. vol. i. p. 266.
 How the Beads were worn. 163

Corona of six tens; thus, by will dated

July 9, 1444, John
Brompton leaves to Margaret, daughter of Nicholas Brompton,
xx
i par precum de
argento et corall continent F/ (six tens) absqnc
gandez, et V sunt de auro. z
Par precularnm was also used to
express a single decade of beads.
I have not as
yet been able to explain the full meaning
of the word par to satisfaction. 163 my

THE CORONA, OR CROWN OF OUR LAD YE.

This is
composed of sixty-three Aves, says Cardinal Bona,
in accordance with the number of years which the Blessed
Virgin is believed to have lived
upon earth, according to the
more probable opinion. 164
This was a favourite devotion with
Margaret, Countess of
Richmond, the mother of Henry VII. Cardinal Fisher says
that kneeling was very painful to her :

"And
yet, nevertheless, dayly, when she was in helth, she
faylled not to say the Crowne of our Ladye, whiche, after the
manere of Rome, conteyneth LX. and thre Aues and at
euery ;

Ave to make a knelynge."

165

BEDE RINGS
are rings with ten small knobs, or bosses, and a
large one for
the Paternoster. They occur of gold, silver, base metal, and
ivory and their use certainly dates as far back as the fourteenth
;

century in England and Ireland.

HOW THE BEADS WERE WORN.

According to Alan de Rupe, St. Dominic carried a pair of
beads attached to his girdle. 166 St. Francis recited the Psalter,

162
Test. Ebor, vol. ii.
p. 104.
53
Henry de Knighton
says that St. Edmund of Canterbury "per singulos dies
tria dixithorarum paria
de die de Domina, de Sancto Spiritu, cum officio defunc-
:

torum. Post primum somnum de nocte

surgens sinaxim dixit." (De Eventibus
. .

Anglic, apud Twisden. Decem Scriptores, col. 2433.)

4
Horologium Asceticum, cap. v. 7, p. 164. Paris, 1866 ; cf. also B. de Busti.
Mariale, pt. xii. Serm. i. pt. iii., not paginated.
Nuremberg, 1503.
A Mornynge Remembrance, &c., not paginated.
65
Stonyhurst Library. In
Cambridge Edit, of 1841, p. 114.
106
Compendium, p. n.
164 Devotions and Good Works.

and enjoined his Order to do so as well, and to wear it. 167 Alan
de Rupe also says that the faithful of every state should carry
in their hands, or at their belt, these manual-psalters -psaltcria
108
hec manualia as wonderful signs of the Divine things of God,
and Michael de Insula exclaims: "Alas, they are now worn
for vanity s sake, although originally instituted for piety and
169
devotion.
Chaucer, in the only original portrait which has been pre
served of him, is shown as holding in his left hand a pair of
beads, consisting of ten Aves, which are black and strung upon a
red cord. 170
Among the woodcuts in the folio edition of the Canterbury
Tales printed by Caxton, the Clerke of Oxenforde wears his
beads slung beltwise over his shoulder as he rides, and the wyf
of Bathe carries hers upon her right arm. Dame Eglcntine, the
accomplished Prioresse,

Of small corall about her arme she bare

A paire of bedes, gauded with grene,
all

And thereon hong a broch of goldfull shene,

On which there was first writ a crowned A,
And after, Amor vincit omnia. in

Brooches, or ouches, and rings are often mentioned as

attached to pairs of beads, their object evidently being to
enable the wearer to fasten his beads to his girdle. William
of Wykeham in 1404 bequeathes nnitm par prccum de auro
appcnsum ad nnnm inonile dc anro Jiabcns Jicc verba inscripta

Beads are often figured in monumental brasses and many ;

examples yet exist. I have noticed that whilst ladies are

represented with beads consisting of six or ten decades, men

are generally given with short beads of one decade. Thus in
the church of North Creak, Norfolk, there is the figure of a
man, c. 1500. He is represented with one decade, having a
ring at one end and a tassell at the other, and on each of the

167
Compendium, p. IO.
368
Ibid. p. 16.
169
Quodlibet, p. 33.
J7
MS. Harl. 4866, f. 91,
quoted by Rock, iii. 329.
171
Prologue, n. Opp. Edit. cit.
iiii.
172
Louth, Life of Wykeham, Appendix, f. xxxvi.
 How the Beads were worn. 165

ten beads 173

is
engraved &i), Haines enumerates many other
on 174
examples tombstones of figures with beads.
Stow also records that on a field to the east side of Hounds-
ditch one of the Priors of the Holy Trinity had erected some
small cottages two stories high for poor bed-rid people. In "

my says he, I remember devout people, as well men

"

youth,"

as women,of this city were accustomed oftentimes, especially

on Fridays weekly, to walk that way purposely, and there to
bestow their charitable alms, every poor man or woman lying in
their bed within their window, which was towards the street,
open so low that every one might see them ;
a clean linen cloth
lying in their window, and a pair of beads : to show that there
175
lay a bed-rid body, unable but to pray."
A
beautiful custom it was the "correct
In those days, then, !

thing"good people to wend their way, on certain days,

for
towards Houndsditch, where the attractions were, not a meet
of the Four-in-hand, and Coaching Clubs, or a muster of well-
mounted fathers and a bevy of daughters, attended by smart
grooms irreproachably turned out, in quest of grooms of another
description, but the blessed poor of Christ, bed-ridden, awaiting
charity for the love of our Blessed Ladye, whose beads laid out
upon a napkin, made the silent yet irresistible appeal to the
hearts of her liegemen and for her love.
The evidence which I have produced shows that it was the
usual custom in England, in Catholic days, for our forefathers to
carry their beads about with them. Many, now-a-days, wear
their beads round their necks but as every layman does not ;

habitually peruse the Ritual, I think it may be of advantage to

add the concluding words of the Blessing of Rosaries :

Eisque tantam iufundas virtutem Spiritus Sancti, ut qui-

"

cumque horum quodlibet secum portaverit, atque in domo sua

reverenter tenuerit, ab omni Jioste visibili et invisibili semper ct
ubique in hoc sceculo liberetur, et in exitu sno ab ipsa Beatissima

173
These must be correct representations, for the Venetian Ambassador, Sir
Francis Capello, mentions that the Englishwomen carry about long strings of beads
in their hands Et in publico dichino molti Pater noster, de i quali le donnc
:
"

in mano 23, Camden Society).

"

portano lunghe filze(Italian Relation, p.

174
Manual of Monumental Brasses, &.c. By the Rev. Herbert Haines, M.A.
Parker, 1861, p. 123. Cf. Monumental Brasses of England. By Rev. C. W.
Bontell, M.A.
175
S. p. 94-
1 66 Devotions and Good Works.

Virgine Maria Dei Genitrice, Tibi plenas bonis operibus prcesentari

mereatur.
When
Burleigh wanted Queen Mary to employ him in her
Government, one of the hypocritical means by which he tried
to cheat her into the belief of his friendly feelings towards the
old faith, walk about Stamford with a pair of beads in
was to
his hands. says Rock, "did the future unprincipled
"Truly,"

Minister of Elizabeth exemplify the remark of Polydore Vergil,

who, in speaking of the beads, said Hodie tantus honor ejus- :

modi calculis accessit, ut non modo ex, ligno, succino et corallio, sed
ex auro argentoque fiant, sintquc mulicribus iustar ornamenti et
liypocritis prcccipua fucosce bonitatis instrumental In the
Manorial of a Cliristian Life, by Father Lewis de Granada,
printed at St. Omer s by John Heigham in 1625, there is an
engraving which represents both men and women wearing a
decade of beads hanging from their waists.

OF WHA T MA TERIALS THE BEADS WERE MADE,

The pairs of beads which our forefathers used were of great
value, as appears from the old wills and inventories. Michael
de Insula, 177 and the Libellus Pcrutitis, 178 both say that the beads
of value, and made of gold and silver and precious stones, may
be worn, not for the sake of vanity or display, but rather to the
praise and glory of our Blessed Ladye, and to symbolize her
virtues, which are more brilliant and precious than all gold and
silver and gems.
The Compotusof A.D. 1333 36, referred to by Ducange,
which have already quoted, 179 mentions pairs of beads made of
I

amber, glass, and crystal. But in the Memorials of London, in

the year 1317, one pair of paternostres of pearls, value of twenty
180
shillings, is mentioned. These Memorials also give a most
interesting inventory and valuation of stock in a jeweller s shop
of the year 1381, 5th Richard the Second.
One forcer (i.e., coffer or box), value 6d, with divers jewels
"

in the same contained namely, 4 sets of paternostres of white

amber, value 2s.\ 16 sets of paternostres of amber, 2os. 5 sets ;

of paternostres, namely, 4 of coral, and one of geet (jet), icxr. ;

176
De rerum inventoribus, lib. v. cap. ix. p. 337. Amsteloclami, Elzevir, 1671.
177 178
Quodlibet, p. 43. P. 84.
170 18
See ante, p. 161. P. 455.
 Of what materials the Beads were made. 167

6 sets of aves of geet, and paternostres of silver gilt, of one

pattern, 8s.38 sets of aves of geet, with gaiidecs of silver gilt,

;

of another pattern, 38^.; 14 sets of aves of blue glass, with

paternostres silver gilt, 3^. ^d. ;
28 sets of paternostres of #. /,
3^. 4</. ; 15 sets of paternostres of mazer (i.e., probably of wood
inlaid with metal), and 5 of white bone for children, 5^. ;

20 necklaces of silver gilt, 5^.; 46 rings of silver gilt, los. ;

14 necklaces of geet, the tongues of silver, 3^. ^d. ; and two

crucifixes of silver gilt, 3^."

In contrast with these evidences of the ages of faith in

England, I may observe that occasionally a pair of beads may
be seen in the window of a London goldsmith, but as an object
of curiosity or vertu.
In the Yorkshire wills, and the Tcstamcnta Vetusta, there
are numerous descriptions of pairs of beads ;
a few of which are
sufficient as illustrations.
181
In 1430, unum par precnlnm
in 1432, optimum de anmbre ;

menm par precnlariuni de nigro gete, et tria fiammcola de fils ;

m
z
in 1452, nnuin par precnm de pouwdcr ; another, dc misty llty n ;^
in 1459, i pay re of bedes gete with gawdes of silver, and i

crucifix, and i
Saynt James shell hangyng at the same bedcs. 184

John Baret of St. Edmundsbury is very precise in the des

cription of his beads. says He :

Item, I yeue and beqwethe to the seid Dame Margaret Spo

"

(Spurdance of Norwich) a peyre of bedys with pater iiris of gold

and on each side of the pat r nris a bede of coral and the Avc
Maryes of colour aftir marbil with a knoppe othir wyse called a
tufft of blak sylke, and ther in a litil nowche of gold with smal
perle and stoonys, be sekyng the seid Dame Margaretc to prey
for me, and that she vvil vowchsaf if hire daughter levc longer
185
than she to have the said bedys aftir hire dissees."
Frequent mention is made of beads consisting of fifteen
decades. Thus, in 1486, Isabella Wilson leaves to her daughter
Marion,
payr of bedis of corall conteigning thre times 1. with all
"

the gaudis of silver and gilt, and of every side of the gaudis a
bede of silver." 186
181 182 183
Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 13. Ibid. p. 23. Ibid. p. 160,
184
Ibid. p. 237.
iss
gury wui St p< 36.
its
Test. Ebor. vol. iv. p. 17.
1 68 Devotions and Good Works.

Sir Thomas More speaks of his wife s gay girdle and her
beads of gold, 187
Libellns Perutilis speaks of pairs of beads made of horn
The
of animals. Beads made of wood were used by poor bedesmen
at funerals. 188 A as a New
pair of beads was sometimes given
Year s gift. 189 A
magnificent pair of gold beads, which formerly
belonged to the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, is now in

the possession of my friend Mr. Howard, of Corby Castle.

6. OUR BLESSED LADYE S LITANIES.

Litanies, or Litanies, a word derived from the Greek

from Xlaffopai, a form of earnest prayer and supplication to
is

obtain the mercy of God through the intercession of the Blessed

Virgin Marye and all the saints. The earliest Litany is that
of the Saints, which was composed by St. Gregory the Great,
and which is known as the Litania Major, or greater Litany.
But Litanies must not be confounded with Acclamations.
Only three Litanies have the approbation of the Church, i.e.,

are liturgical: (i) The Litany of Jesus; (2) the Litany of

Loreto (3) the Litany of the Saints, which is indubitably the
;

most ancient. 191 The Litany for a departing soul, which is in

the Ritual is an abbreviation of the Litanies Majores.

In the Litany of the Saints as used by the Anglo-Saxons,

the name of our Blessed Ladye stands invariably before that of
any angel or saint and it is worthy of notice that it is repeated
;

three times. So it appears in the Pontificale of Ecgberht, Arch

192
bishop of York, A.D. 732 /66, and in the Litany of
193
Alcwine ;
in the early Anglo-Saxon Litany quoted by

187
Cresacre More, Life of Sir T. More. Edit. Hunter. London, 1827, p. 322.
188
Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 187.
189
Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p. 150.
190
Mrs. Jameson has fallen into a singular mistake about the word "Litanies."
Speaking of the Immaculate Conception, she says: "We must be careful to dis
criminate between the Conception, so styled by ecclesiastical authority, and that
singular and mystical representation which is sometimes called the Predestination of
Mary, and sometimes the
"

Litanies of the Virgin !

(Legends of the Madonna, p. 51-
London, 1872).
jai
pcrrar i
$t Bibliotheca Protnpta. Paris, 1854, t. v. p. 177. Edit. Migne.
192
Surtees Society, vol. xxvii. p. 27 ; cf. also p. 32.
193
Opp. Officia per ferias, vol. ii. col. 522. Edit. Migne.
 Our Blessed Ladye s Litanies. 169
194 195
Mabillon ;
in the
Anglo-Saxon Pontificate, which formerly
belonged to the Monastery of Jumieges, and is now in the
public library at Rouen and in the short Litany which follows
;

the blessing of the palms on Palm Sunday, in the Missal of

196
Leofric, which was one of the 1 1 fulle maesse bee given by
197
Bishop Leofric in the time of St. Eadward to Exeter Cathedral.
But in the Caroline Litany, so called because it is believed to
have been composed in the reign of Charlemagne, and during
the Pontificate of Hadrian, the name of our Ladye is only given
once. 198 Hence it would seem that the triple invocation of our
Ladye was peculiar to the Anglo-Saxons ; and it was not con
fined exclusively to the Litany, as is proved by a prayer in the
Book of Cerne, which is of the eighth century. 199 Nevertheless,
there is no trace of any Litany of our Ladye in Anglo-Saxon
times.
But the Irish have a very ancient Litany of our Blessed
Ladye, which is preserved in the Leabhar-Mor now deposited
in the Royal Professor O Curry says that it
Irish Academy.
differs in the Litany of our Ladye in other
many ways from
languages, clearly showing that although it may be an imitation,
it is not a translation.
200
It is much to be regretted that the
learned Professor did not add in what languages, and where
were to be found the Litanies of our Ladye, of which the Irish
Litany might be an imitation.
Professor O Curry believes this Litany to be as old at least
as the middle of the eighth century. No earlier Litany of our
Ladye seems to be known ;
therefore to the Island of Saints is

due the glory of having composed the first Litany of their

Immaculate Queen. The Litany of our Ladye," says Cardinal
"

Wiseman, not a studied prayer, intended to have logical con

"is

nection of parts, but is a hymn of admiration and love, composed

of a succession of epithets expressive of those feelings, the recital
of which is broken into, after every phrase, by the people or

194
Vdera Analeda. Paris, 1723, p. 168.
105
Archaologia, vol. xxv. p. 1 8.
196
Bib. Bodley, Oxonii, n. 579.
11)7
Cod. Dip. ^E-vi. Sax. vol. iv. p. 275.
198
Vet. Analect. pp. 170, 171.
199
The Gospels of yEthelwald, Bishop of Sherborne, A.D. 760, formerly belonging
to Cerne Abbey in Dorset. It is in the Cambridge Library, LI. i. 10.
200
MSS, of Irish History, p. 380.
170 Devotions and Good Works.

chorus, begging the prayer of her to whom they are so worthily

201
applied."
a a
"

hymn, It is
song, of affectionate admiration,

and, at the same time, of earnest entreaty."

202
The Cardinal then
refers to St. Cyril of Alexandria, Hear him apostro and says :
"

phize the Blessed Mother of God in the following terms Hail, :

Marye, Mother of God, Venerable Treasure of the entire Church,

Inextinguishable Lamp, Crown of Virginity, Sceptre of True
Doctrine, Indissoluble Temple, Abode ofHim Who is Infinite,
Mother and Virgin. . . . Thou through whom the Holy Trinity
is glorified ;
thou through whom the precious Cross is honoured ;

thou through whom Heaven exults ;

thou through whom angels
and archangels rejoice ;
thou through whom evil spirits are put
to flight. Thou from whom is the oil of gladness thou
. . . ;

through whom, over the whole world, churches were planted ;

thou through whom

Prophets spoke ;
thou through whom
Apostles preached thou through whom the dead arise
;
thou ;

20
through whom kings reign, through the Blessed Trinity.
Now here," continues the Cardinal, is a Litany not unlike that
" "

of Loreto, and we have only to say pray for us after each of

the salutations to have a very excellent one. This intercalation
would surely not spoil, nor render less natural, or less beautiful,
that address of the holy patriarch." 204 Hence it appears that
whilst these and other homilies suggest the formation of a
Litany of our Ladye, the Irish were the first who did form a
Litany ; that is, a prayer to our Ladye
in the shape of what is
now understood by a Litany. This old Irish Litany of our
Blessed Ladye has an indulgence of one hundred days granted
to all who recite it by Pius the Ninth it consists of fifty-eight ;

invocations, from which I have selected the following :

LITANY.
O Great Marye, O Destruction of Eve s disgrace,
O Marye, greatest of Maryes, O Regeneration of Life,
O Greatest of Women, O Mother of God,
O Queen of the Angels, O Mistress of the Tribes,
O Mistress of the Heavens, O Mother of the Orphans,
O Mother of the Heavenly and O Breast of the Infants,
Earthly Church, O Queen of Life,
O Gate of Heaven, O Ladder of Heaven,
Hear the petition of the poor, spurn not the wounds and groans of the
miserable.
201 202
Essays on various Subjects. London, 1853, vol. i.
pp. 419, 420. Ibid. p. 418.
203 *>*

Labbe, Cone. t. iii. col. 584, 585. Essays, &c., ubi. sup. p. 419.
 The Joys of our Blessed Ladye. 171

A Mariale by an English scribe of the year 1 200, or there

abouts, which have quoted elsewhere, contains a Litany of
I

our Ladye. 205 Then may be mentioned the Litany composed

by St. Bonaventure, who died on the I4th of July, I274. 20C But
although the Mariale affords evidence of the existence of a
Litany of our Ladye in England at the commencement of the
thirteenth century, it does not appear that this or any other

Litany of our Ladye had been raised to the position of a

liturgical prayer.
The Litany of Loreto. This beautiful Litany, which is now
one of the three approved of by the Church for public worship,
and is recited daily through the length and breadth of Christen
dom, was unknown to Catholic England. Liturgical and other
writers are provokingly silent about its origin, but none of them
claim a high antiquity for it. I doubt if it can be traced back

so far as the year 1 560. m

On the 1 3th of September, 1601, Clement the Eighth ordered
that no one should sing or recite in public without his permission,
or that of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, any other Litanies
than the very old ones ordinarily inserted in the Missals,
Breviaries, Pontificals, and Rituals, and the Litanies of the
Blessed Virgin Marye which are sung in the Holy House of
Loreto. 208

/. OTHER DEVOTIONS.
THE JOYS OF OUR BLESSED LADY.
This is the appropriate place for a remark which is suggested
by nearly every detail of the devotion of our forefathers to her
whom they loved to call the Blissful Mother of God."
"

It cannot fail to strike the Catholic mind that everything

connected with the service of our Ladye is
pre-eminently of
a joyful character. The Introit of the Mass of the Assumption
says, Gaudeamus omncs in Domino diem festum celebrantcs sub
Iionore Bcatce Maries Virginis dc cujus Assumptione gaudent
205
Cott. MS. Titus A. xxi.
206
Opusc. ed. cit. t. i. p. 519.
207
Cf. Discursus Pritdicabiles super Litanias Latiretanas, studio et opere P.F.

Justini Miechoviensis, O. P. Neapoli, 1857, p. 14. He wrote in the year 1628.

208
Bourassee, Bullarium Marianum, in Summa Aurea, t. vii. col. 151. Edit.
Migne.
172 Devotions and Good Works.

Angeli, et collaudant Filium Dei. Digby justly says that "it

is very remarkable, bearing mind the gloomy sadness of in

those who reject the intercession of Marye, that the Church
whenever she invokes the Blessed Virgin s aid, seems invariably
to have in view the deliverance of men from sadness, and the
attainment of present as well as of eternal joy, a prcsscnti liberari
tristitia et ceterna perfrui Icetitia, being her words conformable
to those of the sweet hymn
Her para tutum
Ut videntes Jcsum
Semper collcetemur.

She is the true Cause of our Joy.

The most common and homely of all the old English
devotions were the Five Wounds of our Lord and the Five

Joys of our Blessed Ladye. There were, however, several series

of our Ladye s Joys her Five Joys her Seven Earthly and
; ;

Seven Heavenly Joys her Twelve Joys, and her Fifteen Joys. 210
;

211
Lansperg composed a Rosary of the Fifty Joys of our Ladyc.
I have met with many variations of these Joys, and therefore I

only give those which were commemorated by our forefathers.

I. The Five Joys are: (i) the Annunciation; (2) the

Nativity ; (3) the Resurrection ; (4) the Ascension ; (5) the

Assumption.
The Ancren Riwle calls the Five Joys our Ladye s Five
Highest Joys hire vif hexte blisscn. It gives five prayers, one
of each of the Five Joys, which are embodied with the devotion
212
of the five Psalms in honour of our Ladye s Name.
Ames quotes a prayer from the Speculum CJiristiani :

Ladye for thy Joyes Fyve

Gete me grace in thys lyve

209 This title of "Blissful" was also applied to

Coaipituw, vol. ii.
p. 145.
St. Thomas a Becket. So in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, the host of the
Tabarde says
Ye goon to Caunterbury God you speede,
;

The blisful martir quyte you youre meede.

810 Prieres & la S, Vierge tf apres les Manuscrits du
Leon Gautier, moyen age.
Paris : V. Palme, 1873, pp. 347 352; Pelbart de Temesvar, Stellarium. Hagenaw,
1501, lib. x. pt. iv. art. iii.; Drexellius, Roscc sdectissimarum virtutum. Antv. 1636,
pp. 99 1 02
Mone, Hymni Latini medii avi, vol. ii. hymns nn. 454 to 484.
;

211 Divini Amoris pharttra variis orationibus ignitisqiie aspirationibus referta,

auctore Joanne Lanspergio. Antverpise in redit. Joan. Steelsii, 1550, f. ill. b.

Pp. 42, 43.

 The Joys of our Blessed Ladye. 173

To knowe and kepe over all thyng

Christen feith and Goddes byddyng.
And trewly wynne all that I nede
To me and myn clothe and fede.
Swete ladye of wynne
full
Full of grace and God withynne. 213

There are many evidences of the popularity of this devotion.

At Hull, in 1453, Robert Golding leaves five nobles to five poor
virgins to buy five cows when they shall be married, in honour
of the Blessed Virgin Marye 214 evidently in honour of her :

Five Joys. In 1463, John Baret of Bury St. Edmunds wills to

have at his interment and dirge and messe v. men clade in blak
in wurshippe of J hus v. woundys, and v. women clad in white in

wurshippe of oure ladyes fyve joyes, eche of them holdyng a

torche of clene vexe." 215 In 1475, John Weryn left an alms of
lod. in worship of the Five Wounds of our Lord and the Five

Joys of our Ladye.

216
On Candlemas Day the Earl of North
umberland, if at home, offered five groats for the Five Joys of
our Ladye. 217 In 1531, William Keye gave half an acre of land
to provide "five Gawdyes for ever to burn before our Ladye
at Garboldesham, at every antiphon of our Ladye, and at the
Mass on all her feasts." 218
II. The Seven Earthly Joys are :
(i) The Annunciation ;

(2) the Nativity (3) the Adoration of the Wise Men

; (4) the ;

Finding of our Lord in the Temple (5) the Resurrection ; ;

(6) the Ascension ; (7) the Assumption.

III. The Seven Heavenly Joys
(i) Our Ladye s surpassing :

glory her brightness, which lights the whole Court of

; (2)
Heaven (3) all the Host of Heaven obeys and honours her
; ;

(4) her Divine Son and she herself have but one will (5) God ;

rewards at her pleasure all her clients both here and hereafter ;
(6) she sits next to the Most Holy Trinity, and her body is

glorified (7) her certainty that these Joys will last for ever.
;

The Seven Heavenly Joys are associated with the memory

of St. Thomas of Canterbury, to whom our Ladye revealed this
devotion, and by whom this hymn was composed
213
Typographical Antiquities. Edit. Herbert. London, 1785, vol. ii. p. 14.
214 215
s -
P- 55- Bury Wills. Camden Society, p. 17.
816 217
S. pp. 73, 74. Northumberland Household Book, London, 1770, p, 333.
218
S. p. 42.
174 Devotions and Good Works.

Gaudeflore Virginali
Qua lionore principali
Transcendis splendiferum?

It is also related that a similar vision was vouchsafed to

B.Arnulph of Corniboult, a lay-brother of the Abbey of Villiers,
who died in the year I228. 220
There is a corresponding hymn of the Seven Earthly Joys of
our Ladye
Gaude Virgo Mater Christi
Qua; per aurem concepisti
Gabriele nuntio, &c,

Although there is no evidence that St. Thomas wrote this hymn,

itcertainly looks as if it comes from the same hand which wrote
the Heavenly Joys. Jacopone of Todi composed a Stabat
Mater gaudiosa.
In one of the great windows of Canterbury Cathedral the
Seven Joys of our Ladye were represented, together with the
"

Blissful and the patron Saints of England. This

Martyr,"

magnificent window was not destroyed until the Common

wealth. 221In the absence of positive proof it is impossible not
to hazard a conjecture that the great veneration, in which the

glorious martyr St. Thomas was held by the English people,

and throughout Christendom, may have contributed to spread
and make popular the devotion of our Ladye s Joys.
The Fifteen Joys vary very much in different lists. In some
they consist of the Seven Earthly, and the Seven Heavenly
Joys, with the addition of the Visitation and in one set I- have ;

found the Crucifixion included as a victory over hell. 222

John of Gant by his will leaves to the Carmelites of London
xv.marcs dargent en lonur des xv. ioies de Nostre Darned
Other Seven Joys of our Ladye as they are called, are yet
commemorated in popular song in some of the English
counties. 224 Sometimes Twelve Joys are sung.
219
Morris, Life and Martyraom of St. Thomas a Becket. London, 1859, p. 384.
For an old translation of this hymn see Political, Religious, and Love Songs. Early
English Text Society, 1866, vol. xv. p. 145.
220
Colvener, Kalendarium Marianum ad diem 7 Maii, 3.
221
For full description see Northcote, Sanctuaries of the Madonna, pp. 281, 282.
228
Cf. MS. Cott. Nero, c. ix. ; Leon Gautier, ubisup.; Drexellius, ubi s^^p.
223
Test. Ebor. vol. i. p. 223.
224
Journal of British Archaeological Association, vol. viii. p. 238; Husk, Songs of
the Nativity. London : Camden Holten, s. a. pp. 8790.
 The Five Psalms. 175

THE FIVE PSALMS.

It was an old and
pious custom to recite five of the
Psalms which begin with the five letters composing our Blessed
Ladye s Name.
M. Magnificat. (St. Luke i.)

A. Ad Dominum cum (Psalm cxix.)tribularcr.

R. Retribue servo tuo.
(Psalm cxviii.)
I. In convertendo Dominus. (Psalm cxxv.)
A. Ad te lei>avi oculos mcos. (Psalm cxxii.)
The first who is related to have practised this devotion is
Blessed Joscio, a monk of the celebrated Abbey of St. Bertin
at St. Omer s, who died in
They were also sung daily
1
163.
225

by another monk, who died in ii86; 226 and by many

Josbert,
others, among whom may be named Blessed Jordan of Saxony,
the successor of St. Dominic, who took up the Devotion. 227 There
are several variations of it, but I confine myself to the English
form.
In England the five Psalms were said in honour of the
Five Joys of our Blessed Ladye. The Ancren Riwle says :

These psalms are according to the five letters of our Ladye s

"

name. Whoso pays attention to this name MARIA may find it

in the first letters of these five and all those

psalms aforesaid,
prayers run after these five. After her five highest joys, count
in the antiphons, and thou shall find in them five salutations.
Cause to be written on a scroll what you do not know"
(by heart). The prayers I have omitted, excepting the last.
In the form given by the Ancren Riwle a prayer is
prefixed
to each psalm. It says :
"

Whoso cannot say these five prayers,

should say always one, and who thinketh them too long, may
omit the psalms.
Sweet Ladye Saint Marye, for that same great joy which
"

thou hadst within thee at the very time when Jesus God, the
Son of God, after the salutation of the Angel, took flesh and
225
Th. Cantimpre de apibus, lib. ii. cap. xxix. par. xv.
226
Colverer, Kalend. Marian, ad diem 30 Nov. ii. nn.
3, 4.
227
The form used by B. Jordan is given in the Daily Manual of the Third Order
of St. Dominic. By the Rev. F. James D. Aylward, O.P. Dublin, 1862, pp.284
290. The Raccolta gives this Devotion in the indulgenced form. Authorized Edit.
London, Burns and Gates, 1873, pp. 169 173.
176 Devotions and Good Works.

blood in thee and of thee, receive my greeting with the same

Ave, &c. Hail Marye, to the end, five times." different A
prayer, with the same number of Hail Maryes, accompanies
each of the other four psalms, and at the end of the last comes
the versicle, Spiritus Sanctus, and the prayer, Gratiam tuam,
&c., with the antiphons, Avc Regina ccelorum, Gaude Dei
Geni-
Gaude Virgo, and Alma Redemptoris. Here say fifty "

trix,

Aves, or a hundred, more or less, according as you have time.

Lastly, this versicle, Ecce ancilla Domini, and the prayer,
O Sancta Virgo. Whoso will, may stand up immediately after
228
the first prayer, and then say her number of Aves."
Bonaventure gives another version of the Five Psalms,
St.
22S
which he called the Crown of our Blessed Ladye.

THE SCAPULAR.
This most widely spread Devotion is one of the glories of
our Ladye s Dower. The history of its foundation I have given
under Newenham 230 and Winchester. 830 Among the members
of the confraternity the Menologium names King Edward of
England with his wife and children, Henry, Duke of Lancaster,
viiractdis clams, the King of Scotland with all his family, the
with his wife and children, and Henry, Earl
"
"

Earl of Ireland
of Northumberland, whose names are taken from the Annals of
the Order. 232

NIGHT HYMN.
This is an old hymn to our Blessed Ladye, which our fore
fathers would recite before retiring to rest :

Upon my ryght syde y may ley :

blessid Lady to the y prey

Ffor the teres that ye lete,
vpon your swete Sonnys feete ;

Send me grace for to slepe

and good dremys for to mete ;

s
Pp.
_
39 43 .

829 Edit.
Opusc. vol.
i.
p. 491. cit.
230
S. pp. 105, 106,
231
S. pp. 243 246.
232
Menologium Carmelitanum. Auct. R.P. Petro Thoma Saraceno de Bononia,
Carmelita. Bononiae, 1628, p. 293,
 Comparison of Old and New. \
77

Slepyng,wakyng til morrowe day be :

Our Lord is the freute, our Lady is the tre,

Blessid be the blossom that sprang, Ladye, of the,
/// nomine Pain s el Ft Hi et
Spiritus Sancli. Amen.-""

The following is written on a fly-leaf of the Sarum Horce,

1530, in the Stonyhurst Library:

Uppon my right side 1

lay me
as Jesus did on Maries knee ;

Now Jesus for thy holly name

shield me from sin and shame.
Witt and wisdome vnto me geve
as longe as I in this world live,
Sweet Jesus. Amen.

8. COMPARISON OF OLD AND NEW.

Those who have ever looked into the subject cannot fail
to be struck with the great contrast between the old manuals
of devotions and modern prayer-books. The former teem with
milk and honey, and are full of unction for the soul, whilst in
the latter, quantity and novelty are the characteristic features.

Occasionally, well-meaning editors completely spoil a prayer of

some standing, because they have not understood it. Old
prayers are frequently remodelled by those who have not
caught their meaning, and brought out in a new shape and
with a new name. Thus the Thirty Days Prayer in its original
form was called the Obscssio, or the Besieging," of our Ladye,
"

as if it were felt that she could not refuse a prayer made in

such earnest language.
It is more than a century since an edition of the Prymer

was brought out. This was the favourite prayer-book of our fore
fathers. It contains the Obsessio of our Ladye, and other fine

prayers, and also the Passion of our Lord according to the

four Evangelists. It is an old English custom to recite one
of these Passions daily. My
late father did so every day of
his life, although he never told me his reason or his object.
In the times of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, the Passions of
our Lord were read for the souls of the faithful departed ; thus
in the Codex about the year 805 :

Harl. MS. 541, f. 228 h.

m
178 Devotions and Good Works.

bidde seghwilc diacon arede twa passione

"

ic . . . t5aet . . .

234
fore his savvle."

This love of the old prayers which their fathers had used
was one of the characteristics of the civil martyrs of the penal
laws. Miss Dorothy Daniel, who became the wife of Mr.William

Bell, of Temple-Broughton he died in 1598 is described as

"delighting in the abnegation of herself and corporal austerities,
and in the same instructing her children being so much given :

to prayer, as besides the Office of our Blessed Ladye, of the

Dead, the Gradual and other Penitential Psalms, Hymns,
Litanies, Office of the Holy Ghost and Holy Cross, prayers
of the Manual which were her daily exercise in the time of ;

Lent she would never sleep before she had read over the whole
Passion of our Saviour according to one of the four Evangelists,
in Latin, which she understood well." 235
Our forefathers loved to offer to our
Ladye various gar
"

ments." Many old metrical prayers to our Ladye were in the

form of acrostics, and took their name from some key-word,
23
e.g., Amicttts, or Mantle Annnhts, Thronus, Crinalc.
Est titulus tails, probat lit series capitalis.
237
Sit Thronus iste pia tibi gratus Sancta Maria.

Then may be offered to our Ladye, the key being

a
"

ring
"

the words, Annulus Beate Virginis Marie : 238 and also a "hair
pin,"
or crinale, which consists of ten strophes, each of five
lines,and commences, Ave, Salve, Gaiide, Vale, O Maria
each word being the beginning of every strophe in the respec
tive five decades. Lastly, there are the "Alphabets," or Stave-
"

24
of our Ladye, the verses of which commence with the
"

rows
letters of the alphabet in succession.

234
Codex Diplomatints Saxonid, t. i. p. 293. Among the prayers usually
ccvi

given in the old Prymers is one to our Lord by St. Bernard, Bonejesu, Piissime
Jesu, which I once found described in an illuminated copy of the Hone of our
Ladye as Orison four fairc enragier Ic deablc, as no doubt it did whenever it was
recited.
235 In the Indulgences granted by Gregory
Catholic Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 391.
XIII. beyond the Alps is mentioned Quicnmqne
for all places legerit passionem . . .

Christi &c. Douay Diaries, ubi sup, pp. 366, 367.

. . . ,

236
Mone, Hymn. Lat. medii cevi, v. ii. pp. 239, 268, 442, 445.
237
Ibid. p. 442.
238
Ibid. p. 445.
239 Ibid.
p. 268, see ante, p. 48.
240
Ibid. p. 449.
 Comparison of Old and New. 179
In no feature,
perhaps, do English Catholics of the present
day differ more from their forefathers than in their want of
a
liturgical spirit. They are present at the services of the Church
without joining in the words of the
Liturgy. During Mass
they prefer to say other prayers rather than those of the Missal.
There are many excellent methods of
assisting at Mass, but
they all fall short of the prayers used by the priest. Any one
who attends the parochial High Mass in France cannot fail
to be struck with the
liturgical spirit of the congregation, for
the greater part, if not all of
them, join in the singing and
follow the priest.
Cardinal Wiseman most
appropriately says There can be
:
"

no doubt that, while the ancient Christians had their

thoughts
constantly turned towards God in private prayer, the Church
took care to provide for all the
regular and necessary discharge
of this duty by her These were not meant to
public offices.
be holiday services, or mereduties, but the ordinary,
clerical
daily, and sufficient
discharge of an obligation belonging to
every state and class in the Church. It never was understood
that besides the public offices there should be certain
long,
family or private prayers, as necessary to discharge the duty
of morning and
evening spiritual sacrifice. Unfortunately, those
offices have, for the most
part, been reduced to a duty, dis
charged by the clergy in private, and have thus come to be
considered by us as a purely ecclesiastical
obligation superadded
to, not comprehending, the discharge of
ordinary Christian duty.
One is apt to forget that Prime is the Church s
morning prayer,
and Compline her evening devotions. Yet so the two
manifestly
are. But what greatly helps to make us overlook this fact
is,
that we have been accustomed to consider
morning and evening
prayers as necessarily consisting of a specific form, composed
of certain definite acts of devotion
arranged in a formal order,
and have lost sight of that model which characterizes all the
offices of
the Church, and is and must be far the most
perfect.
Let us observe the principal difference between the two classes
of prayers.
"

i. It will at once strike us, that the modern ones are

almost entirely composed for recital
by one person. That this
is not with a view to
private devotion, appears from the few
responses which are introduced, just sufficient to show that
I So Devotions and Good Works.

congregational or family worship, as it is called, is intended.

Yet the great body of assistants must be mere listeners while
one person recites a long series of prayers. Every one knows
how difficult it is to keep up prolonged attention under these
circumstances, how easily the mind wanders and is finally lost,
till by a response. Now this shows the
recalled mechanically

advantage of frequency in such interruptions nay, how expe ;

dient it would be to have them come in almost every moment.

In the more solemn liturgy, or Mass, where the principal actor
is the priest, having a ministry exclusively his, the rest must

be content to join their prayers mentally with his, or rather

with the sacred rite performed by him. And so in some other
functions, wherein the priestly character alone has efficacy to
act. But in all other daily Church offices the service is espe
cially choral join in nearly equal parts
;
all psalms, hymns,
versicles, antiphons, belong to the entire company of fellow-

worshippers. All therefore become equally sharers, equally

interested, in the holy exercise, and the attention is kept alive
or easily recovers advantage, and
itself. Surely this is a great

gives at once immense superiority to the ancient over the

modern form of prayer."
The same high authority goes on to say The Church :
"

offices are always full of life and cheerfulness. This, in fact,

seems to be a marked characteristic of the Catholic Church :

she ever prays in hymns, making a joyful noise to God with

Moreover, in the Church offices, everything is prayed
"
"

psalms.
for that ought to enter into the exercises for which they are
intended but they being composed of psalms, hymns, and
;

most beautifully selected, the various peti

spiritual canticles,
tions run blended through the entire office, according as the
various portions of the chosen parts express them. This pre
vents weariness it is like a variety
: of modulations in music,
full of passages through various keys, with occasional apparent

and momentary dissonances, that only give zest to surrounding

harmonies. On
the other side, our modern devotions have each
petition, and each act of virtue accurately distinct no room is ;

left for a varied play of feeling there are no contrasts, no ;

light and shade. The former is the language of nature ;

the
241
latter that of art."

241
Essays, itbi. snf, pp. 389 390.
 Comparison of Old and New. 18 1

Now in the list of Old English Devotions to our Blessed

Ladye, it will be noticed that all of them, including the
Psalter or Rosary, in its primitive form, and before it was
simplified by St. Dominic, are adapted to general as well as to
private use, and may be sung as well as recited. The Hymns
of our Ladye s Joys, the Litanies, the Marye Mass, the Five
Psalms, the Psalter, the Antiphons, and the Night Hymn all
partake of that spirit which the Cardinal describes.
Some there are who consider the recent introduction of the
grand old Gregorian chant into our churches as an innovation.
Probably they are unaware that this was the chant used by
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and Venerable Bcdc relates that
some years after the coming of St. Augustine, John, the Arch-
chaunter of Rome, was sent to England to teach the true prin
ciples of sacred music.
 CHAPTER THE FOURTH.
Things Consecrated.
I. CITIES AND MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.
Gloriosa dicta sunt de te, CI VITAS DEL
Psalm Ixxxvi.

Salve Presidium Urbaniim, tu mcenibus hostes

Ara s, ct moles concittis horrificas.
Johannes Geometra.

IN every nation of Europe there arc many cities which are

placed under the special protection of our Blessed Ladye, and
others which bear her name.
In England may be mentioned Ottery St. Marye s, 1 and
St. Marye s Cray. The name Evesham, or Eovesham, records
the vision of our Ladye to Eoves the swain, 2 represented on the
seal of the abbey. 3 Lincoln was dedicated in a special manner
to her after the victory of the citizens over the Earl of Chester,
4
in 1 I47, just as Siena was consecrated to her in thanksgiving
after the battle of Arbia. Aberdeen was under the patronage
of our Ladye, and in consequence the armorial bearings are a
pot of lilies. Florence, for a similar reason, bears a lily.
Our Ladye, between St. Peter and St. Paul, with the City
arms under her feet, was formerly represented on the old seal of
London, which was made in the time of William Walworth.
6

7 8
She yet appears on the corporation seals of Rye, Leith, and
Newhaven. 9 The seal of Rye is a splendid piece of engraving.
It represents our Ladye with her Divine Son in her arms,
standing in a beautiful tabernacle the legend ;
is &UC S^flClft
plena ting teciim benefticta tu m muUeritwg*
1 2 3 4
S. p. 117. S. p. 33. Arch<?ologia t
vol. xix. p. 43. S. p. 63.
6 6 7
S. p. 287. S. p. 67. I have seen an impression.
s
S. p. 300. 9 S. p. 302.
 Town Gates. 18;

TOWN GATES.

Alma Redemptoris Mater quce pervia cccli

Porta manes.
Antiphon of the Church.

Many town gates were dedicated to our Blessed Ladye,

whom the Church invokes as the Gate of Heaven. Images of
our Ladye stand over the Porte de Calais, and the Porte des
Dunes at Boulogne-sur-Mer over the former is inscribed
:

VRBIS ET ORBIS DECVS ET DOMINA. At the Monastery

of St. Laura on Mount Athos there is by the gate a little chapel
dedicated to Our Ladye the Portress," in Romaic --opra triaaa
"

10
or more properly, Qvpupa, the door-keeper. Chaucer addresses
our Ladye
11
To hem that rennen them art itenerarie.

At Arundel there Gate, which was

was a gate called the Marye
and over it was a
erected at the close of the thirteenth century,
chapel served from the College, in which Mass was daily
celebrated.
12
The images of our Ladye and the Archangel
Gabriel yet grace their niches in the Stonebow at Lincoln.
Over the New Gate of London stood an image of our Ladye,
which Father Campion saluted from his hurdle as he was
13
dragged under the arch on his way to martyrdom.
Other images of our Ladye are also mentioned, which from
their names show where they were erected, and they must have
been as commonly placed in house-corners and in walls, as they
are yet to be seen in Catholic countries. Thus there was our
Ladye in the Wall at Calais, and our Ladye in the Rock at
Dover, at both of which sanctuaries Henry the Eighth made
his offerings.
14
There was also our Ladye in the Tower at
Coventry,
15
and our Ladye of Grace in the Wall at North
ampton.
10
The Series gives the history of our Ladye at
10
Didron, Annales Archcologiqucs, vol. iv. p. 84. Cf. also Marracci, Polyantluca
Mariana sub voce, Janitrix, Janua, Porta.
11
A Balade in commendation of our Ladie Opp. Edit. cit. f. 329 b.
12
S. p. 266.
13
S. p. 281.
J4
S. pp. 5, 29. I searched in vain at Calais, in 1875, f r this shrine. No traces

exist, and the very memory of our Ladye in the Wall has perished.
15
S. p. 27.
16
S. p, 107.
184 Things Consecrated.

the Cross inWest Cheap, London. 17 When her image with that
of her Divine Son was finally removed, it was replaced by "an

alabaster image of Diana. 18 The "Reformers" considered that

an indecent statue of a heathen divinity was a more fit ornament
for the base of the emblem of man s Redemption at West Cheap
than the image of the Virgin Mother of God with her Divine
Son in her arms. How truly were the words of Horace borne
out in succeeding generations
arcntmn pejor avis lulit
Nos nequiorcs^
I have long noticed an image of our Ladyc over a shop in
London and the image of our Ladye now in the Church of the
;

Sacred Heart in Edinburgh was found over a shop in Peter

20
borough.

BRIDGES.

Maria . . . Pons pcriculosi hitjus inundaniflitininis,

1
Bernardino de Busti."

The more the principles of Christian art by which our

forefatherswere influenced are studied, the more the beauty of
their symbolism becomes manifest. It did not escape them that

St. John Damascene calls our Blessed Ladye the Bridge which
leads to the Creator St. Proclus, the Bridge by which God
;

descends to man St. Andrew of Crete, the Bridge conducting

;

mortals to heaven. Marracci quotes many other similar ex

22
pressions from the writings of the Fathers.
The river, too, was the emblem of the fleeting and transitory
life of man, and thus the
bridge became the symbol of her whose
prerogative it is to lead us through this mortal life to God.
Thus it is that so many bridges exist in Great Britain which
cither yet are or formerly were called by the name of our
Blessed Ladye. As the bridge was the great thoroughfare, it
presented a most fitting site for a chapel, or an image of our
17
S. p. 93-
18
Stow. Edit. Strype, bk. iii.
p. 35.
19 Lib.
iii. od. 6.

20
S. p. 299.
21
Mariale, Serm. ii. De Coronal. B.M.V. in fine. Nuremberg, 1503, not
paginated.
23
Polyanthaa Mariana, sub voce.
 Bridges. 185

Laclye, which would offer to the pilgrim and wayfarer of all

classes the opportunity of breathing an Ave to our Blessed
Ladye, as her liegemen were taught to do from their infancy.
At was St. Marye s Bridge, on which was a
Sheffield there

chapel where Mass was celebrated.

23
At Leicester there was
a chapel of our Ladye on the Brig, which is mentioned in the
will of William, Lord
Hastings, dated June 27, 1481 "Also I :

woll that myne executors do make new and edify the chapell
of our Ladye called the chapell on the Brigge, at Leicestrc ;

and for the

making thereof c//., also that they finde a preste in
the same chapell by the space of seven years next, after my
decese, to say daily Masse, &c., in the same chapell, and other
24
prayers as shall be ordeigned by myne executors." Thus
Mass was constantly celebrated in the various Ladye chapels on
bridges. At Lynn-Episcopi, now King s-Lynn, a chapel of our
25
Ladye stood at the cast end of the bridge. At Blythe, there
was cither an
image or a chapel, for in 1347 Alice, wife of John
bequeaths to the light of our Ladye on the bridge of
Ilcnriot,
Blye her green tunic with its hood.
20
At Wakefield the chapel
of our Ladye on the bridge is one of the gems of Yorkshire ;

its vicissitudes are Bradford, York

described later. 27 At
shire, there is a bridge which, although dedicated to St. Osith,
is called the
Ivy Bridge. I have pointed out that in Stow s
map of London, Ave Maria Lane is given as Ivy Lane,

consequently the Ivy Bridge of Bradford may be considered

as the modernized form of Ave Bridge. On the farm of Drax
Abbey, near Snaith, there is a lane formerly known as Ave
Maria Lane, but the unlettered rustics, who know nothing of
our Ladye, now call it Hairy Mary Lane. Lcland mentions our
Ladye chapell on Avon Bridge, at Bristol.
28
At Aberdeen there
were chapels of our Ladye at the Brig of Dee, and our Ladye
on the Brig. 20 At Perth the remains of the chapel of our Ladye
at the Brig 30 are now transformed into the Police Office. In
Catholic days gilds were sometimes founded for the repairing
of bridges, or the making of roads, and it may safely be con
cluded that due attention and care was paid to our Ladye s
31
chapels and images.
23 26
S. p. 138. "

Test. Vet. p. 371. S. p. 100. S. p. 269.

2 B0
"
S. p. 154. S. p. 4. 2<J

S. pp. 287, 290. S. p. 303.

31
Sec Lelancl, Kin. vol. ii.
p. 67; vol. iv. p. 27.
1 86 Things Consecrated.

HOSPITALS AND BEDE HOUSES.

In London or the suburbs there were five hospitals named

after our Blessed Ladye :
(i) St. Marye Barking, for poor priests
and men and women of the city of London now suppressed. 32 ;

(2} St. Marye Bethlem, founded in 1247, by Simon Fitz-Marye,

who had been one of the sheriffs in the preceding year. 33 It is
now transferred to Southwark. (3) St. Marye Spital, or the
New Hospital of our Ladye, founded by Walter Brune, a citizen
of London, and Rosia his wife, in 1197. It surrendered to

Henry the Eighth, when it was found to contain nine score

34
beds well furnished for the receipt of the poor of charity.
(4) St. Marye within Cripplegate, founded in 1329, by William

Elsing, mercer, for one hundred blind men of the city of

London. 35 (5) St. Marye Rounceval, near Charing Cross,
founded in the thirteenth century. 30 It was pulled down, and
Northumberland House was erected on its site, and out of the
ruins and now Northumberland House no longer exists.
;

The celebrated Sir Richard Whittington founded a College

of the Holy Ghost and our Blessed Ladye, and a God s House
for thirteen poor men, who were daily to pray for the founder
and his wife. 37 Walter, Lord Montjoy, by his will in 1474
endowed a God s house for the maintenance of seven old folks
of his estates, and required that each of them should recite
twice each day the Psalter of our Ladye in their chapel.
38
A
similar God s house for five poor men was founded by Lord
39
Marney in I523. Many other similar foundations might be
enumerated.
The indomitable energy and perseverance which charac
terized their forefathers, are equally to be found in the leading
British merchants of the present day

Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis ;

but too many of the religious thoughts and pious practices

which graced the earlier generations, to whom a possible
peerage was not the summum bonuni, may be looked for now
32 33 3* 35 36
S. p. 95. Ibid. S. p. 97. S. p. 98. Ibid.
87 ss
S. p. 94. Test Vet. p. 271. 3<J

Ibid. pp. 610, 611,

 Consecration of Land. 187

in vain. men knew what it was to be poor

In Catholic times
in spirit, and to live for eternity. They cared very much to
secure a remembrance in the prayers of the Church and those
of their poor bedesmen.

2. CONSECRATION OF LAND.
In the illuminated charter of privileges of Eton the royal
founder, Henry the Sixth, is represented on his knees offering
the foundation deed to our Ladye.
It may be said that in the ages of faith very few Englishmen
who had it in their power to give some practical proof of their
love of God and His Blessed Mother, omitted to do so.
Thus, owners of ancestral estates and lords of manors would
give to our Ladye their seigneurial or manorial rights, like
Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died at Rouen in
the year 1439. In his will he left directions for a chapel of
our Ladye to be well, faire, and goodly built, in the middle of
which his tomb was to be made. He then orders that, "in

the name
of Herryott to our Ladye there be given myne image
of gold, and that of our Ladye there to abide for evermore." 40
Now a heriot is the best beast or other chattel which, by the
custom of some copyhold manors, the lord has a right to seize
on the death or alienation of his tenant, but more usually on
his death. However, the right of the lord is now confined to
such a chattel as the customary law will enable him to take. 41
In many manors upon the death of a copyholder, even though
he was only tenant for life, the lord becomes entitled to his
best beast or chattel, whether consisting of a jewel, a piece of
plate, or anything else, or to some pecuniary compensation
thereof. A heriot is only due on the death of a legal tenant,
not on the death of the person entitled to an equitable estate
in a copyhold. 42 Therefore there can be no doubt as to the
act of the Earl of Warwick ;
and it may with safety be presumed
that this was not a solitary instance.
Then in regard of the tenure of land. Thomas Winchard
held lands in Conington, County Leicester, in capite, by the
l
S. pp. 22O, 221.
41
Edit. Badham.
Haliday, Digests, &c. London, 1872, p. 182.
42
A
Compendium of the Law of Real and Personal Property^ &c. By Josiah W,
Smith, B.C.L., D,C. London, 1870, vol. ii. p, 9691
1 88 Things Consecrated.

service of saying daily for the souls of the King s progenitors,

and the souls of all the faithful departed, five Pater nosters and
five Ave Marias. Richard Paternoster, for his relief, said
three times before the present Barons (of the Exchequer) the
Lord s Prayer, with the Salutation of the Blessed Marye, as
44
John his brother This John Pater
had done for his relief.
noster held one yard-land with the appurtenances, in East
Hendred, in the county of Berks, by the serjeanty of saying
for the soul of our lord the King one Pater noster daily, and
it was worth 5^. yearly.
45
And Alice Paternoster held one
yard-land in Pusey in the same county, in capitc, of our
lord

the King by the service of saying every day five Pater nosters
46
for the souls of the King s ancestors. Did this family take
their surname from their service ?
Lands were also held by the service of providing lights to
burn before images of our Blessed Ladye. William Strode
held two tenements with gardens of the Priory of Plympton by
the payment of wax to the value of four shillings and sixpence
to be burnt before the image of our Ladye in the Conventual
Church. 47 And at East Herling, in 1510, Robert Banham pur
chased a messuage and six acres of land, held of the manor
of East Herling, by 8d. a year, to find a wax candle burning
48
in that church before the image of our Blessed Ladye.
Those who know Bavaria and Belgium will remember the
numerous way-side sanctuaries, and crucifixes, and images of
our Blessed Ladye, sometimes of a rude description, but never
theless all recalling the great mystery of the Incarnation, and
of our Redemption, and inviting the peasants and those who
pass by to greet our Ladye with the Angelical Salutation, or
salute the Five Wounds Thus, in Dives and
of our Lord.
For
ben by ye waye, that whan
this reason
crosses
"

Pauper :

folke passynge see the crosses, they sholde thynke on Hym

49
that deycd on yc crosse, and worshyppe Hym aboue all thynge."
43
Blount, Fragmeula Antiquitatis, at Ancient Tenures. Edit. Beckwith. London,
1815, p. 281.
44
Rot. Fin. Easter, 31 Edw. III. Blount, p. 282.
45
Blount, Ibid.
46
Ibid.
47
S. p. 127.
48
S. p. 53-
49
A Compendiouse Treatyse, or Dialogue of Dives and Pauper^ &c. Imprynted in
Fletestrete by me, Thomas Berthelet. 1536.
 Consecration of Land. 189

From Chaucer it is quite evident that, in the ages of faith,

similar way-side roods and images of our Ladye were thickly

spread over the length and breadth of England, because school

children were taught to salute our Ladye whenever they passed
50
by her image, as the wedow taught her son, the litel clergion.
And frequently under these way-side images the lines of
St. Bonaventure, which are quoted in the Sarum Prymer, would
be written or painted :

Hac ne vatic vid nisi dixeris Ave Maria.

Sit semper sine v&, qui tibi dicat Ave,

as in the corner of the garden wall of the Cluniac abbey at

51
Paisley.
In the third year of Henry the Sixth, 1424-5, a tenant of
the Abbot of St. Albans, by name William, being at Marford,
and afflicted with blindness, in a spirit of devotion caused a
wooden by the road leading to Codicote, and
cross to be erected
near to he placed an image of our Ladye in alabaster. 52 Some
it

times these crosses represented our Lord on one side and our
Ladye on the reverse, as in the celebrated cross erected within
the area of Merton College, Oxford, 53 and at Somersby, county
Lincoln, where, I believe, the cross still exists/
4
And the
names of many of the sanctuaries I have given explain their
position. Wood, near Epworth Our Ladye
Our Ladye in the ;

prope fureas, near Hereford Our Ladye in the Island of ;

Hilbury, which sandy, and hath conies;" Our Ladye at the

"is

5
Oak, Islington, and Our Ladye in the Park, at Liskeard/
The images of our Ladye in many of her great sancturies, such
as at Montaigu, in Brabant, have been found attached to trees,
which was the history of Our Ladye of Fernyhalgh.
Dr. Rock says If every large town has yet
:
"

its St. Marye s

Church ;
if every, however small, parish once had its St. Marye s
50
See ante. p. 25.
51
S. P 303.
.

52
S. p. 100.
53
S. p. 123.
64
S. p. 139. For other evidence on way-side crosses, -Cf. Leland, Itin, vol. i.
p. 42 ; Ibid. Collectanea, vol. ii.
p. 438 ; Camden, Britannia. Edit. Cough, t. ii.

p. 245 ; t. iii. p. 33 ; Chronicon she Annales Prioratns de Ditnstable. Edit. Ileame,

vol. ii. p. 586 ; Walsingham, Hist. Anglicana.
88
S.pp. 31, 51,54, 58,65.
i go Things Consecrated.

altar, almost every district had its Ladye grove, its Mary-
field, its
Mary-well, Lady-mead, its besides other patches
of ground by wood and stream, with other such-like denomi
56
nations."

The Manor of Tacabre, or Takkabere, formerly belonging

to the Abbey of St. Marye of Graces, acquired the name of
Merrifield, a corruption probably of Mary-field.
57
The Cathedral
at Salisbury was built on a piece of ground once called
Miryffeld, or Maryfield.
58
And near Sowerby, in Yorkshire, a
considerable portion of land was called Ladyland. 59 Camden
speaks of a place in the county of Glamorgan, called Margam,
perhaps Mairgvvm, or vallis Maria?, because the church is dedi
cated to our Ladye, and lies in a bottom. 60 At Ashurst, in
Kent, there is a fine old chestnut tree commonly called our

Ladye s tree.

A ceremony, which is called Beating the Bounds

"

of
"

parishes is yet observed in England. This is the remnant of

the Catholic custom of blessing the fields and the crops on the
three days preceding the festival of Holy Thursday, or the
Ascension of Christ our Lord. These are called the Rogation
Days in the Missal
they were known to our Anglo-Saxon
;

forefathers as the Gang Days." On these days a solemn

"

procession was made through the streets of towns and the

fields of a country parish the relics of the saints were taken
;

out of the churches and carried round, and the Litanies of the
Saints, commonly called the Greater Litanies were sung, to
implore the blessing of God upon the new crops and farm-
stock. The Anglo-Saxon homilist, Aelfric, admonishes how "

we those days (the gang days) should offer up our

also in
and follow our relics out and in, and with fervour praise
prayers,
Almighty God."
61
On these solemn occasions our Ladye was
specially invoked.

Now comes the day wherein they gad

abroad with cross in hand,
To bounds of every field, and round
about their neighbour s land ;

56
Church of our Fathers, vol. iii.
p. 288.
57 53
Lysons, Magna Brittania. Cornwall, p. 45. S. p. 136.
59 60
S. p. 142. Britannia. Edit. Gough, t. ii.
p. 150.
61
Homilies. Edit. Thorpe. Vol. i.
p. 247.
 Ladye Wells. 191

And as they go, they sing and pray

To every saint above,
But to our Ladye specially,
whom most of all they love. 62

In these days of rinderpest and

potatoe disease, and the
probability of the invasion of the Colorado beetle, the proces
sions of the Gang days
according to the ritual of Holy Church,
might well be revived.
The first
Monday after the Epiphany is yet called by its
old Catholic name of Plough Monday. On this day the
ploughmen used to go round from house to house to seek for
alms wherewith to buy candles to burn before
images of our
Ladye and the saints, to implore a blessing on their agricultural
labour. Thus in the chapel at Tunstead there were
images of
the Most Holy Trinity, and Our
Ladye of Pity, and the Plough-
light, as it was called, of Upgate and Hungate. 63
Those who have been to Rome will remember well the
long
trains of hay carts which arrive in the
city from the Campagna]
and ti.ey will not have failed to notice that the biroccio leading
is drawn by a magnificent pair of oxen, with bells at their
necks, and that fixed into the pole there is an
upright shaft
with a picture of our Ladye, and a over This pious
canopy it.

custom must be of very ancient origin I do not know if it ;

was observed in England.

As to the religious foundations,
royal or otherwise, which
covered the land, abundant evidence is contained in the Series
which forms the second part of this book.

3. LADYE WELLS.
All the host of angels, and all
holy things,
Say and sing that thou art of life the well-spring.
A Good Orison of our Laclye, thirteenth century.
64

Innumerable in England, Scotland, and Ireland are

holy
wells, and wells dedicated to our Blessed
Ladye, as is evident
>2

For many interesting details, see Instructions snr la Liturgie, &c. By M. Noel
Vicaire General du Diocese de Rodez. Paris Perisse freres.
:
1861. Vol. v.
PP- 341, 37i.
63
S. p. 152. Cf. also Blomefield, Parkins Cont. v. iv.
84
p. 325.
Old English Homilies of the
Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. First Series.
Early English Text Society, vol. xxxiv. p. 190, n. xx. lines
71, 72,
192 Things Consecrated.

from their name of Ladye wells ;

and many of them are renowned
for their sanitary properties. Certain it is that the water which
65
It
they supply invariably the best in the neighbourhood
is

is impossible not to believe that at some period these Ladye

wells had been placed under the protection of the

"

Well-spring
of Life,"
the Blessed Mother of God, and hallowed with the
blessing of Holy Church. The same may be said of wells
dedicated to particular saints. Miraculous cures are yet wrought
in St. Winefride s Well, which gives its name to the town
Holywell. And it must be noticed that Protestants as well as
Catholics are yet in the habit of resorting habitually to these
Ladye wells. The principal ones which I have named are under
the headings of Eccles, Fernyhalgh, Jesmount,
i.e., Jesus-Mount.

Muswell, Sowerby, Walsingham, Woolpit, and

Scarborough,
Stowc and Tarbat in Scotland. Norden, who was a Protestant,
mentions the miraculous cure of a King of Scotland by the
water of the spring of Our Ladye of Muswell, and says very
significantly :
"

absolutely to denie the cure I dare not, for that

the High God hath giuen virtue vnto waters to heale infirmities,
as appeare by the cure of Namaan the leper, by washing
may
himselfe seauen times in Jordan, and by the poole Bethseda,
which healed the rest that stepped thereinto after it was mooucd
by the Angell."

The Church, however, was ever ready to check any undue

00
devotion which might arise from visits to wells not hallowed.

65
At the Sanitary Congress at Leamington, on Friday, the 5th of October,
Archdeacon Denison read a paper on the supply and storage of water at East Brent,
in which he said, "that when he went to East Brent in 1845 there was no pure
water to be had, except what was held in two shallow wells near the foot, of the
knoll the Lady Well, or Well of the [Blessed] Virgin (the church being dedicated
:

to the [Blessed] Virgin), and the Dripping Well, both of them on the foot of the
knoll at some considerable distance from the village, and of limited supply, though
(Times, October 6, 1877).
"

never wholly failing

60
In the year 1240 the Council of. Worcester forbids superstitiosas fontium
"

adorationes, et populorum collectiones apud Cerne, et apud fontem Rollre, apud

Gloverniam, et in aliis locis similibus, quoniam ex hoc animabus fklelium multa
novimus pericula provenisse, per sacerdotes vicinos proecipimus prohiberi, et per

substractionem panis benedicti et aquce benedictae, coerceant eos quos in hoc de

ccetero noverint deliquisse" (Cap. xv. Labbe, t. xi. pt. I. col. 574).
 Flowers. -
193

4. FLOWERS.
Oner pcperit florem det nobisjloris odorcm.

Breviary of Aberdeen.

It should not escape notice how often in the old

English
prymers, prayers, and poems, our Blessed Ladye is called by
the name of some flower or plant. In the early part of the
eighth century the Irish invoked her in their ancient litany as
the Enclosed Garden, Branch of the Root of Jesse, Cedar of
Mount Lebanon, Cypress of Mount Sion, Crimson Rose of the
land of Jacob, Blooming like the Olive tree. Alcwine addresses
her as the Flower of the fields, the Lily of the world, the
Garden enclosed :

Tu Regina poll, campiflos, lilia mundi

Hortus conclnsns, vita; fons, vena set hitis. 6

In the Sarum Prymer she is hailed as the Rose without thorns,

the lofty plant of the Lily of chastity, the deep Violet of the
valley of humility, the wide- expanding Rose of the field of
Divine charity. 68
In an old hymn to our Ladye, we find

Heyle plesaunt lyly, most goodly in bewty,

O plesaunt olyve with grace circundate.
09

In the Life of St. Werburga written by Henry Bradshaw, a

monk of the abbey of Chester, our Ladye is called the Flower
of womankind :

Nexte in ordre suynge, sette in goodly

purtrayture
Was our blessed Lady flowre of femynyte. 70

Many of the plants and flowers which now bear the name
of our Blessed Ladye were, in pagan times, called after Venus.
The scandix, or Pcctcn Veneris, is now our Ladyc s comb. In
the north of Europe, before the Christian faith had been intro
duced, the name of Freyja, the frau "-mother and queen of the
"

northern gods, was used, and is still to be met with. Thus in

67
Opp. t. ii. coll.
771. Edit. Migne.
68
Edit. 1556, not paginated.
69
Political, Religious, and Love Songs. Early English Text Society, vol. xv.
pp. 8 1, 82.
70
Life of St. Werbnrga. Cheetham Society, 1848, p. 61 (a reprint of Tynson s
edition of 1521, in 4to.)
n
194 Things Consecrated.

Iceland one species of the Adiantum is known as Freyja s hair;

the lady-bird, the German Marienvoglein, was once Freyja s bird ;

and the constellation of Orion s belt, known in Zealand as

71
Mariarok Marye s spindle is still Freyja spindle in Sweden.
s

In the old English Herbals many plants and flowers arc

mentioned in connection with the different feasts of our Ladye,
and several are named after her garments. For the affectionate
love which our forefathers had for the Blessed Mother of God
was borne out in the most minute details. The snowdrop
was called our Ladyc of February, and afterwards the Fair
Maid of February, or Purification flower. 72 Lungwort, from the
feast of the Annunciation, at which time it is in full flower, has
been called our Ladye s milk-wort. 73 The marygold belongs to
nearly all the feasts of our Ladye, and the name seems to allude
to the rays of glory round her head.

Long years ago, ere faith and love

Had left our land to sin and shame,

Her children called my blossoms bright

By their sweet Mother s gentle name.
And when amid the leaflets green
They saw sweet
"
"

Mary-buds unfold,
In honour of the Angels Queen
They plucked the Royal Marygold.
Iwas the favourite of the poor,
And bloomed by every cottage door,
Speaking of Heaven s Fair Queen to men,
They loved me for the name I bore.
There is no love for
Marye now,
And faith died out when love grew cold,
Men seldom raise their hearts to Heav n,
Though looking at the Marygold.

But Marye from her throne on high

Still looks on England and on me ;

The namesake of the Queen am I,

The Ladye of the Land is she.
And surely she must win once more
Her heritage to Christ s True Fold ;

Then to her children, as of yore,

Will preach again the Marygold. 74

King, Sketches and Studies.

71
London, 1874, p. 68.
72 The Catholic Annual, containing the Circle of the Seasons, and the key to the

Calendar. By Thomas Forster, M.D., F.R.A.S. London, 1830, p. 32.

73 Ibid. p. ?o.
74
Legends of our Ladyc and the Saints, London, 1870, pt. i,
p. 77.
 Flowers. 195
Our Ladye s smock at our Ladytide,

says an old English verse. The ladysmock, Cardamine Pra-

tcnsis, is a corruption from our Ladye s smock.
Shakespeare
alludes to it in his Spring Song :

When daisies pied and violet blue,

And lady-smocks of silver hue.

Black Bryony, Tamns Communis, was called our

Ladye s seal.
flower till August, when it bears
It is in berries. It is
large
mentioned by Lord Bacon in his Sylva Sylvariim. It was
formerly a medicinal herb, and known by the name of Sigillum
Bcata Maries Virginis^ Many varieties of clematis, or Virgin s-
bower, come into flower about Visitation-tide
they are in full ;

blow at the
Assumption, and fade about the 8th of September.
Hence their name. 70 The lily is the especial emblem of that
that was flowre of
"

fayre mayd
all maydens, for
righte as the
whyte and fair among bryers and other flowres
lylie is ; ryght
soo was our Ladye among other 77
maydens."

From Visitation to St. Swithin s showers

The lily white reigns Queen of the Flowers. 78
"

The is a says Malou,

simple yet evident symbol of the
lily,"
"

Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Ladye, because, in the

language of Holy Scripture, thorns denote sin and sinners,
whilst the lily is the image of innocence and
purity.
"After the fall of our first parents, God cursed the earth, and
said that in punishment of the sin of Adam it should
produce
briars and thorns. Thorns are therefore, as it were, a sort of
monument of the
The comparison of our
fall of the first man.
Blessed Ladye to the lily which grows
among the thorns recalls
the perfect holiness which she preserved
among sinners. It is,
virtually, an admission that all mankind are accursed
plants
(i.e., inasmuch as they are born in original
sin) with the excep
tion of the Blessed and Mother
Immaculately-conceived Virgin

75
7 /te Herball, or General Historic of Plants. Gathered
by John Gerarde.
Enlarged by Thos. Johnson. London, 1636, p. 871 ; Catholic Annual, p.
76
159.
Catholic Annual, p. 183.
< 7
Liber Festivalis, De
Nat. B.M.V. f. cxlvi., quoted by Rock, vol. iii.
"

8
p. 248.
Catholic
Annual, p. 56. Cf. also Marracci, Polyanthia Mariana, voce Lilhim,
for the Fathers who have applied this word to our Blessed
Ladye.
196 Things Consecrated.
innocence,
of God, who alone, on this earth, preserved a spotless
7!)
and the sweet perfume of all virtues."

in the hymn of Vespers in the

Little (
This is expressed
of the Immaculate Conception.
Lilinm inter spinas
OHO; serpentis contcrat
Capnt.
80
The white-flowered, or wild Virgin s bower,
and our Ladye s
bedstraw (Galium molngo ; the upright is the
Galinm crcctnm)
the time of their blooming to the feast of the
belong by
Visitation. There seems to be some difference of opinion
82
In
whether this should be written bed-straw or bead-straw.
the middle of August we find our Ladye s traces, or tresses,
or Neottia spiralis The white or wild Virgin s
Spirant/itis, 84
bower is recorded also as the Assumption flower.

When Marye left us here below,

8^
The Virgin s bower is in full blow.

The Assumption was sometimes called the Festnm

Herbarum^
lines upon this day in his
Barnaby Googe has the following
English version of the Popish Kingdomc, by Naogeorgus.

The Blessed Virgin Maries feast hath here his place and time,
she did the heavens clime
Wherein, departing from the earth,
;

fast do beare,
Great bundles then of hearbes to church the people
the doth hallow theare. 87
The which against all hurtfull things priest

88
Our Ladye Gcntiana dliata, flowers for her Nativity.
s fringes,

A few other flowers may be named.

Our Ladye s thistle. This is the purple-flowered Ladye s
thistle, Cardmts Marianus,
called also the milk thistle, the

leaves of which are diversified with numerous white

beautifully

79 p. 105.
IconographiedeVlmm. Concept,
80
Catholic Annual, p. 189,
81
Ibid, p. 193.
Cf. Old English Wild Flowers.
82 By J. F. Burgess. London, 1 868, p. 68 ;

and Brand, Popular Antiquities. London, Bohn, 1849, vol. ii.

p. 66.
83
Catholic Annual, p. 208.
84 Ibid. 228.
p.
85 Ibid.
p. 56.
86 Harris Nicolas, Chronology of History. London, 1835, p. 116.
-
P. 55, quoted by Brand. Edit. cit. vol. i. p. 349.
*8
Catholic Annual, p. 252.
 Flowers. 197

spots. derived its name from our Blessed Ladye, some of

It
whose milk is said to have fallen upon the leaves of the plant,
and to have caused the white spots. 89 The tradition is of no
modern date, as appears from the name given to this thistle by
early botanists of different countries Cardmis Marice, Carduns :

Sanctcs Maria, Carduns Marianns, Ccirdo di Santa Maria,

C/tardon Notre Dame, Cliardon Marie, Marie Distcl, Fraicen
Distcl, Onzer lieve Vrauwen Distcl.^
The common maiden-hair fern, Asplenium tricJwmanes, is

said to have been previously called our Ladye s hair 91 but ;

Gerard is of opinion that it was originally named Venus s hair,

Capilluin Vencris, and then changed into our Ladye s hair,
and Chevaux de Notre Dame. 9 2
Our Ladye Cypripedinm in French, Sabot or
s slippers, ;

Soldier de Notre Dame ;

Dutch, Vrouwcschoen ; and in Portu
in
^
guese, Canada de Nuessa Sen/wrap Our Ladye s Costns, or
Costmary in German, die Frauciuniingcr, and
;
in Spanish,
Hicrba de Santa Maria?^ Our Ladye s fingers, Anthyllis
vulncraria; our Ladye s mantle Alcliemilla vulgaris, in Swedish
Maria Kapa;^ and the common yellow buttercup is called our
Ladye s bowl. Our Ladye s laces, or lace-grasses, Gramcn
striatnm. Amongst the mosses and plants found about Whit-
sand Bay, Cornwall, there is one called Saint Marye s fan, from
its resemblance to a fan. The beautiful little blue forget-me-
not is called in France the eyes of our Ladye, Ics ycnx de Notre
Darned
D Herbelot mentions a plant, Bokhitr Miriam, the perfume
of Marye, i.e., the Cyclamen odoratum^ The Persians call it

Tchenk Miriam, and Pencheh Miriam, i.e., the hand of Marye,

and say that our Ladye, having laid her hand on this plant, it
took the form of her five fingers, and gave a most delightful

Edit.
8<J

Brand, Popular Antiquities. cit. vol. i.

p. 48.
U3
Loudon, ut sup. p. 68 1.
81
Catholic Annual, p. 30.
ua
Herball, p. 1144.
93
Loudon, Encyclopedia of Plants. London, 1855, p. 766.
94
Ibid. p. 696.
a5
Ibid. p. 88.
9(i
Gerard, p. 26.
97
Montalembert, Vie de Stc. Elizabeth, Introd. p. 140. Edit, l86l.
08
Bibliothcque Oriental?. Paris, 1697, p. 209.
198 Things Consecrated.

fragrance. The Arabs call it Artlianita ; in France it is named

the gloves of our Ladye, les gants de Notre Daniel
Fortunatus, Bishop of Poictiers, who flourished in the sixth
century, mentions the custom that then prevailed of hanging
flowers and garlands over the altars :

Texistis variis altaria festa coronis,

Pingitur ntfills floribus ara novis.
m
They were also suspended round the walls of churches, as

appears from St. Gregory of Tours, who mentions that the

priest St. Severus had attached lilies to the walls of one of the
churches which he had built. Solitus erat flores liliorum tempore
1
quo nascuntur colligcrc, ac per parictes Iinjus cedis appendere^
And St. Paulinus says :

Ferte Deo pueri laudes, pia solvite vota j

Spargite florc so him j prcetexite limina sertis :

Pitrpitreum ver spirct hyeins : sitfloreus annus

Ante diem : sancto cedat nalura diei. m
This custom was practised in the old English churches, and
happily it is now being revived. It is still observed on the
Continent. Those who have visited Rome will remember the
beautiful mosaic-like carpets of flowers which are sometimes
made before the Confessions of the saints on their festal days.
Flowers are also strewed or placed on the tombs of the martyrs.
St. Augustine, in his treatise DC Civitate Dei, mentions that
Martial, the most considerable man in the city of Calama, in
Africa, was miraculously converted by the application of a
flower taken from the of St. Stephen. 103
tomb
Flowers were
also worn as chaplets or garlands by the canons of some of our
old Cathedrals, and the parish priests in the great processions ;

and was not confined to England. Dr. Rock gives

this practice
104
many interesting details and examples. Flowers form a most
appropriate offering to the altar, and before the images of our

Ladye.
w Ibid. p. 584 b.
100
Quoted by Pugin, Glossary, sub voce.
101
De Gloria Confessorum c.l. col. 866. Pativl. Lai. t. Ixxi. Edit. Migne.
102 ubi. sup.
Quoted by Pugin,
103 Edit. Migne.
Lib. xxii. cap. viii. col. 766.
104
Church of our Fathers^ vol. ii. pp. 7277.
 Flowers. 199

The illustrious Augustus Welby Pugin, to whom the Church

in England owes so much; makes some very pertinent obser
vations.
"

The
of decorating churches with
custom," says he,
"

flowers not only most ancient, but it is truly admirable, as

is

proceeding from the beautiful principle of making all the

creatures of God contribute, in their season, to increase the
. solemnities of His worship : Bencdicite universa gcrminantia
in terra Domino All things that bud forth on the earth, bless
105
ye the Lord.
should however be remarked," and to what follows,
"It

I wish to draw particular attention, that each quarter of the

"

year in succession produces a fresh variety for this purpose ;

nor less beautiful is the red-berried holly, fresh and bristly,

among the tapers of a Christmas night, than the roses of the
Assumption. While nature then supplies the richest stores for
each succeeding festival, how monstrous is the modern practice
of resorting to paper leaves and tinsel flowers, standing like
faded trumpery throughout the year, a mockery and a disgrace
to the sacred edifices where they are suffered to remain. The
English churches were decorated several times in the course of
the year 100 and it will be seen from the following extracts from
;"

the parish accounts of St. Marye Outwich, London, for the years
[524, 1525, that branches of birch, holly, yew, and broom, were
used for the decoration of churches and altars.
"

Item, for byrch at midsomer, \\d.

Item, for holly and ivy at Chrystmas, \\d.

1525. Paid for Korks-flowers and yow, \\d.

Paid for brome ageynst Ester, id.

Paid for byrche and bromys at Midsomer, md.
Paid for rose garlands on Corp 5 Xti daye, \\d"

I hope this old Catholic custom

fully revived, and may be
that the altars and churches of God
no longer be disfigured will

by artificial flowers. When the great expense which is lavished

in these days, in the hire of flowers to adorn window-conserva

tories, balconies, the dinner-table, and ball-rooms, is taken into

consideration, it seems wonderful that a few flowers cannot be
sent as well to the house of God new plants and fresh, and not
second-hand ones, which have already done duty at a banquet
or a ball, for that would be giving to God that which has budded
103 106
Cant, trium puer. Pugin, Glossary, sub voce,
2oo Things Consecrated.
it
forth at His command, longer any use for
after man had no
Even the Epergnc which, now-a-days filled with flowers, occupies
the centre of the dinner-table, is the old Catholic alms-dish, as
107
its very name indicates.
A few zealous and activeQueens of our Ladye in every
"
"

change the aspect of things, and

see
congregation would soon
that proper attention was paid to the floral decorations of the

houses of God and the altars of the Lord, and the shrines and

images of the Blissful Mother of God, "that

Rose of most
transcendant beauty, that most fragrant Rose, to whom flew the

Heavenly Bee, Who feeds amongst lilies, and dwells

in the

flower-bearing country of the angels, on whom

He settled, to
whom He clove."
108
"

But who are the "

Queens of our Blessed Ladye ?

OUR BLESSED LADYE S QUEENS.

In the former diocese of Boulogne, now incorporated with
that of Arras, there exists a very ancient and beautiful custom,
of which I have found no traces in Catholic England, but which
might be introduced most appropriately into the
Dower of our
our Ladye s
Ladye. In nearly every parish church the care of
altar intrusted to three young ladies, or three maidens, for the
is

space of two or three years. Their duty is to look after the

decorations of the altar, and the altar linen. In country
churches attend to the decoration of the church for great
they
festivals. They keep burning before the altar of our Ladye
as was the custom
large wax candles, wreathed with flowers
in England and adorned with ribands, which they carry in
processions. Their place is at the head of the maidens of the

parish.
109
These young ladies are usually called the Queens of
our Ladye les Reims de Notre Dame There is a large field
for their services in England.
107 From tpargner,
108
Liber fraternitatis Rosacet corone. Without date, pagination, or place, but
c. 1 500. Library of the Oratory, London.
loy
Cf. Haignere, Hist, de N. D. de Boulogne, p. 283.
J1
See ante, p. 92, note 182.
 Household Funiture. 201

5. HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE.
A most favourite object in the houses of our forefathers
was an image of our Blessed Ladye. St. Edmund of Canterbury
had constantly an ivory image of our Ladye on his table and ;

in 1493, Thomas Wilmott, Vicar

of Ashford, bequeathed to the
chapel of St. Nicholas the image of our Ladye which used to
stand in his study. 111 Moreover, from the numerous examples
of diptychs and triptychs beautifully carved in ivory, which
represent, in the case of triptychs (or polyptychs), our Ladye, with
scenes from her life, and in diptychs, the crucifixion on one leaf,

and our Ladye with her Divine Son on the other, that these
were intended for private use, and in many instances to serve as
portable oratories, because it is sometimes added that they had
cases. Thus in the Wardrobe book of the 28th of Edward the
First are enumerated, an image of the Blessed Virgin Marye of
ivory, with a tabernacle of ivory, in a case in uno coffino ;
m
and four images of our Blessed Ladye with tabernacles, and
113
sundry images. These latter were evidently triptychs or
polyptychs. Little portable images of our Ladye were also
made in gold and silver. From the constant mention which
occurs of them and from the different inventories it would
seem as if the Kings of England kept jocalia of this kind for
presents. Amongst the jewels in the Treasury in the time of
Henry the Eighth was a tabernacle of gold with Our Ladye
of Pity, 114 and others of a like nature.
In the decorations of houses, representations of our Ladye
and of her life often occur. Thus, in 1266, by a royal writ
tested at Westminster on the nth of February, the Constable
of Winchester Castle is ordered to make a certain window of
white glass, and to cause the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
115
Marye to be painted in it. Amongst the accounts of works
at Windsor in the time of Henry the Third, there is a notice

111
S. p. 2.
112
or cophinus, a little chest; those in the Royal Treasury in the
"Cqffimes

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were of wood" (Promptoriiiin Parviilonun, sub

voce. See also note, Ibid. p. 128, under Doivcet Mete).
113
Lib. Garderob. Edw. I. pp. 351, 352.
114
Ancient Kalendars and Inventories of the Exchequer^ vol. ii.
p. 274.
115
S. p. 242.
2O2 Things Consecrated.

of the insertion of a glass window

gable of the Queen s in the

chamber, on which was depicted the Root of Jesse, a favourite

pictorial subject of the time it was provided with a wooden ;

shutter. 110

Then, again, may be named mural paintings, remains of

which may still be found in old houses. 117

BEDS.

By dated July Qth, 1444, John Brompton of Beverley

will,

leaves, inter alia, to his son a bed of arras-work with the image
of our Blessed Ladye and the Three Kings.
118
And John Baret
of Bury St. Edmunds says in his will :

yeue and qwethe to John Aleyn my chyld, &c. &c.

"

Itm, I

I wil my
Itnt, if he will be a preist or a prentys to a craft,
executors helpe hym therto with my good 3 and there is a tester ,

with ii costers small palyd of bukram blew and bett blew with
s

an ymagc of oure ladyc in gold papyr that I vsed to trusse with

119
me, I wil he heue hem and the selour longyng therto."
He also by his will gives to his niece "the steynycl clooth
of the coronacon of our Ladye with the clothes of my that longe
e 120
to y bedde that she hath loyen in."

PAINTED CLOTHS.
Our Blessed Ladye also formed the subject for painted

cloths, probably intended for the decoration of walls. Thus

John Tidman, chaplain, by his will dated August 4, 1458, leaves
to Alice, the wife of William Philipp, a cloth painted with the

history of the Five Joys of our Blessed Ladye and to Isabella, ;

daughter of Jane Byddus, a cloth painted with a large image of

the Blessed Virgin Marye.
121
And by his will dated July 19,
in the
1464, John Burton, chaplain of the infirmary of the poor
Hospital of St. Leonard s, York, leaves to his sister Ellen a
small stevened cloth with an image of the Blessed Virgin Marye,
122
and the legend, S^atet* ton memento met ,
116
Rot. Comp. Pipes 20 Henry III.
U7
Journal of the Archceological Association, vol. iv. p. 93.
118
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 99.
119 Wills and Inventories. Camclen Society,
Bury p. 34.
120
Ibid. p. 23.
131
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 213.
123
Bury Wills and Inventories. Camden Society, vol. ii.
p. 262.
 Gold and Silver Plate. 203

GOLD AND SILVER PLATE.

I.
Cups and Mazer-boivls.
In 1368, Richard Colier of
Nottingham leaves to his daughters Alice and Isabella his two
large scyphi murrei, or mazer-bowls ; the one with the Trinity
in the centre to Alice ; the other with an
image of our Ladye
in the centre to Isabella. 123 of
John Charlton, prebendary
Riccall in the church of York,
by his will dated July 18, 1438,
leaves to Master Robert Gilbert, Dean of
York, gilt cup "a

covered like a chalice with an

image of the Blessed Virgin on
the base, out of which in
preference to other ones I used to
drink, and rejoiced, so that at the sight of this little present
he may remember me."
124
William Nawton of Grimston, near
Settrington, Esquire, by will dated March 19, 1453, amongst
other bequests to John Nawton, his son and heir, leaves him a
covered cup of silver called the Standing Piece," with an "

image
of our Blessed Ladye on the summit. 125 And in
1463, by will
dated August 26, Eufemia, wife of Sir
John Langton, leaves to
her son Henry Langton a silver
cup with an image of the
Blessed Virgin Marye on the 126
top.
2. Dishes, or shallow basins (pelves). In 1426, by will dated
August 8, Peter del Hay, of Spaldington, leaves to his wife

Elizabeth two silver dishes with the Annunciation in the

centre, cum
Salutatione Angelica in fundo situata. 1 - 1 This
is
evidently the construction in this instance of Salutatio
Angelica
3. Spoons. Anne Wood of Bury St. Edmunds, in 1525,
mentions in her will a
spoon knopped with the ymage of our
12S
I have a
Ladye. very beautiful spoon, silver gilt, with the
image of our Ladye and her Divine Son on the end, about
A.D. 1500.
The old wills also include occasional bequests of what

133
Bury Wills and Inventories, vol. i.
p. 85.
124
Ibid. vol. ii.
p. 14.
1=5
Ibid. p. 58.
136
Ibid. p. 259. On the silver-gilt rim of a late fifteenth
century cup belonging
to the Ironmongers Company, the Angelic Salutation is inscribed.
17
Ibid. vol. ii. p. ii. See also Surrey ArchicoL Collections, vol. iii. p. 161.
128
Cf. remarks thereon, S. p. 190.
129
Bury Wills and Inventories, p. 258, note.
2O4 Tilings Consecrated.

130
arc described as "Maidenhead" spoons: thus William of

bequeathes some spoons cum Maydens

hedd>^
Wykeham
Maidenhead, or rather Maidenhede, signifies virginitas-
The typical representation of virginity or maidenhood, or
maidenhede, as it was formerly written, was a young maiden
138
with her hair loose and flowing over her shoulders. But there
is no evidence that the representation of the Maidenhede
was
ever intended for our Blessed Ladye. I have seen several of

the spoons so called, and they quite bear out what I have said.

BANQUETS.
A favourite dish at the great banquets of our forefathers
was a 134
This was an elaborate piece of con
"subtlety."

fectioner s art, adorned with figures, and representing a scene

or group having reference to the occasion of the festival. The
a a adorned
modern representation of
is richly
"subtlety"

it, the object

Such was, I have described
I take
wedding-cake.
under the heading of at the enthronization feast of
Canterbury,
Archbishop Wareham. He had been promoted to the Master

ship of the Rolls and as there

was doubtless, a celebrated image
;

of our Ladye, in the Chapel of the Rolles, these two circum

stances afforded a scope for the ingenuity of the Procurator, and
the Maister Cooke. Accordingly, in the device, "the King
s habit unto our Ladye at
presented my lorde in his doctor
Rolles, sytting in a towre with many rolles about him,
with
comfortable words of his promotion, as it appeareth in the verse
following :

Est locus egregiustibi Virgo Sacrata dicatits,

Publica servari quo monumenta solent.
Hie primo hunc situ dignabere, dignus honorc :

Commendo fidei scrinia sacra suce*

130
Bury Wills and Inventories, p. 134.
131
Journal of the Royal Archteological Institute, vol. x. p. 235.
Promptorium Parvulorum, sub voce. Also Halliwell, Archaic and Provincial
133

words, sub voce.

133
Cf. Herbert, The Twelve great Livery Companies, vol.
i.
pp. 225, 226.
134
jr or fu n particulars see the Forme of Curie, Roll of ancient English
a
Edited by S. Pegge.
Cookery, by the Master Cook of King Richard II. London,
1783. Many curious details of cookery are given in the Opera di M. Bartolomco
a work of considerable rarity.
Scappi, cuoco secreto di Papa Pio Qtiinto, Venetia, 1596,
135
Forme of Curie, p. 112.
 Modesty and Discretion. 205

Locus cgrcgius evidently refers to the religious house of converts

in New Street, now Chancery Lane, known by the name of
the Rolles. It was founded by Henry the Third c. A.D. 1236,
for Jews, converts, and to be converted, to the Christian faith.
Edward the Third appointed this house for the custody of the
Rolls and Records of Chancery. John Yong, I.U.D., and
Master of the Rolls was buried in the chapel A.D. I5i6. 136
There was also a house of converts dedicated to our Ladye
at Rolles, near Canterbury. 137

6. DETAILS OF COMMON LIFE.

Unius trita omnium disciplina.

St. Ambrose.

MODESTY AND DISCRETION.

Our Ladye modesty in dress is commended. In a Litelle
s "

short ditey agayne homes

"

referring to the period when ladies

disfigured themselves by wearing horned head-dresses the poet
begins by saying that all beauty is natural, and that
beauty
needs no horns, and adduces the example of our Blessed Ladye.
Grettest of vertues is humilite,

As salamon sayth, son of sapience,

Most was accepted to the deite.
Take hede here-of gefe to thys word credence,
How maria, which had a preeminence
Aboue alle women, in bedlam whan she lay,
At cristes byrth, no cloth of gret dispence,
She weryd a keuerche hornys were cast away.
;

Moder of ihesu, myrrour of chastite,

In word nor thought that never did offence ;

Trew exemplire of verginite,

Hede-spryng and welle of perfyte continence !

Was neuer clerk by retoryk or science

Cowde alle hyr verteus reherse to this day.
Noble princesse of much beniuolence,
By example of hyr joure hornys cast away. 138

Walsingham gives some amusing details of the importation

of French fashions into England after the taking of Calais by
136
S. P .
7.
137
S. p. 232.
38
Political, Religions, and Love Songs. Early English Text Society, vol. xv.
pp. 45, 46.
206 Things Consecrated.

Edward the Third, in I347, 139 which shows that the English
matrons of those times were not exempt from some little failings
which prevail now-a-days. Conversation on fashions frequently
leads to what is, unkindly, no doubt, called gossip, savoured

occasionally with a soupcon of

"

scandal." In the ages of faith

idle talk was severely reprehended and our Ladye was held ;

up as the model for discretion in speech. The Ancren Riwle,

which has a delightful quaintness and humour about it, although
it was written for Anchoresses, contains much that might be read

and put into practice by many of the daughters of Mother Eve.

says, "in Paradise, held a long conversation with the
"Eve,"
it

serpent, and told him all the lesson that God had taught her
and Adam
concerning the apple and thus the fiend, by her ;

talk, understood at once her weakness, and found out the way
to ruin her. Our Ladye, Saint Marye, acted in quite a different
manner. She told the Angel no tale, but asked him briefly
that which she wanted to know. Do you, my dear sisters,
imitate our Ladye, and not the cackling Eve. Wherefore, let

an anchoress, whatsoever she be, keep silence as much as she

can and may. Let her not have the hen s nature. When the
hen has laid, she must needs cackle. And what does she get
by it ? Straightway comes the chough and robs her of her eggs,
and devours all that of which she should have brought forth her
live birds. And just so the wicked chough, the devil, beareth
away from the cackling anchoresses, and swalloweth up, all the
good they have brought forth, and which ought, as birds, to bear
140
them up toward heaven, if it had not been cackled."

Instances also occur of peculiar dresses, or devices on them,

being worn in honour of our Ladye. Thus in the College of

Ottery St. Marye all the collegians were to eat together on the
festival of the Assumption, and,
"

in token of the spotless

virginity of the Dear Dove of
they had to wear Paradise,"

surplices during dinner, without which no one, unless he were

spoils which the English brought from France were dispersed all over
139 "The

England. .Nam nnllins nominis erat fccmina, qua non aliquid de mamibiis
. .

Cadomi, Calesia:, et aliarum itrbium transmarinarum, vestes, furmras, cnlcitras et

ntensilia possidebat, . . . Tune superbirt cceperunt matrons: Anglicancs in apparatibus
matronarum Gallic? Ccltica, et ut ilia: dokbant de rerum suarum amissione, sic isttz
gandebant de rernm dictarnm adquisitione" (Historia Anglicana, vol. i. p. 272.
Rolls Edit).
140
P. 67.
 Girdles and Garters. 207
a religious man, should be permitted to eat. 141 The
Knights of
the Order of the Garter had to bear on the
right shoulder of
their mantle a golden figure of the Blessed
Virgin Marye, on
her five festivals, and on all Sundays of the 142
And year. by
his will, dated
January 13, 1518, Richard Cloudesley gave and
bequeathed to two poor men of the parish of Islington, two
gowns, and the same gowns to have Sparta upon them, in
honour of our Blessed Ladye, every gown to be of the of price
143
6s. 8^."

Among the various articles of dress may be included :

GIRDLES,
To what has been already said about our Ladye s
girdles, it is
only necessary to add that in difficult cases of childbirth ladies
were also recommended to wear in honour of our Blessed
Ladye
a girdle or scroll with the Magnificat written on it or ;

as a MS.
of the fifteenth century, entitled The Knowyng of "

Woman Kynde," has it, wryte the salme of Magnificath

"to

in a long scrow and

gyrdet abowte her, and sche shall be
144
It appears to have been a custom for
delyvert." young ladies
to wear hallowed girdles as a protection from insult and these ;

belts seem to have been called Girdles of our 145

Ladye.
as I have mentioned elsewhere, a most common
It was,

practice, both with men and women, to wear a pair of beads,

or a decade, pendant from their girdles.

GARTERS.
An example of a leather garter of the fifteenth century, on
which is stamped #tie Slparia, ffCacia plena, is preserved in
the Roach-Smith collection of antiquities found in the city of
140
London, and now in the British Museum. The letters being
141
S. p. 118.
142
Ashmole, ubi sup. p. 189.
143
History, and Antiquities of the parish of St. Marye, Islington.
Topography,
By John Nelson. London, 1811, p. 302.
H4 p
rivy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, p. 197, note.
145
Cf. Our Ladye s Girdle, a border ballad. The Local Historian s Table Book,
&c. By M. A. Richardson. Legendary division, vol. iii. pp. 161 199. Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, 1846.
146
Catalogue of the Museum of London Antiquities collected by Charles Roach-
Smith, Printed for subscribers only, 1854, n. 645.
2o8 Things Consecrated.

stamped, prove that this was a common form of garter. During

the middle ages, prophylactic virtues were often attributed to
such as + 3]efU
*
inscriptions worn on fibulae and rings, liaja--
* *

jutieonmt, or + aue
*
renug re*
4
*
macia gcacia plena*
It is not improbable that these garters may have been worn
"

against the cramp. One of the old English charms against "

the crampbears evidence to our Ladye s immunity from sin.

Cramp be thou painless
As our Ladye was sinless
Whan she bare Jesus,
147
And quickly leave us.

GYPCERES,

or bag-purses, attached to the belt, were much worn and ;

the clasps often bear the monograms of our Lord or of our

Blessed Ladye and an inscription which frequently occurs on
;

them is + atte macia JJtacfa plena, and sometimes in

148
capital letters.

RINGS AND FIBUL/E OR BROOCHES.

There one class of rings peculiar to England, examples

is

of which have never met with elsewhere. They have figures

I

of our Blessed Ladye and the Saints engraved on them, some

times on the bezels, and in signet rings on the shoulders. Rings
of this description must have been very common, for they
149
are often mentioned in wills. Rings also occur inscribed
mei, and with the Holy Names
* *
Uet memento
*
+ flD
*
mater
*
+ 31!)efu0
*
S^an a: and occasionally with aue+ matfa *

often found on fibula?.

plena, an inscription which
* is

147 vol. xxiv. p. 287. In the

Journal of the British Archaeological Association,
Richard II., 1382, Robert, Clerk of Wancllesworth, was punished for pretending to
5
be a physician; on examination, he "was found to be an infidel, and altogether
ignorant of the art of physic
or surgery." He hung about folks necks a piece of
inscribed, Anima Christi Sanctifica me; Corpus Christi,
salva me ; in
parchment
cum bonus
isanguis Christi nebria me (sic. for, Sangtiis Christi inebria me] ; Christits

tu, lava me (Riley, Memorials of London, p. 465).

148 vol.
ArchaoZogia, vol. xxiv. p. 353; Ibid. p. 115; Whitaker, History
xviii.

and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, co. York. London, 1805, p. 169.
149
Fcedera. Edit. 1740, t. iv. pt. ii. p. 134. Also Test. Ebor. passim.
 Jewels and Seals. 209

JEWELS.
These may be divided into three classes: (i) those for
personal wear (2) portable ornaments described as jewels
;
;

(3) morses and jewelled mitres, which come under the head of
church ornaments.
1. Jewels adorned with the image of our Ladye are often
mentioned in wills. In the Inventory of the treasures in the
Exchequer, temp. Henry the Eighth, sundry items occur, such as
lytell tablett of goldc w our Ladye grauen in a garnett,
l
"a

and a lytyll pie (pearl), a cheyne and a hooke wayinge iioz.

150
iii
qts. di."

2. Of
portable ornaments :

Itm, a tabernacle of golde w our Lady techyng her Sonnc,

"
l

w l
an angel bearing an ouche, &c. xvioz." 151
a tabernacle of golde \v our Lady of Pyty
"Itm,
l
w l
her
sonne in her lappe, w ii angells behyndc, &c. xoz." 152
l

Jewels of this description used to be sent by the Kings of

England as New Year s gifts.
103

SEALS.
Seals form a subject of great historical interest, 154 but my
space only allows me to make a brief mention of them. It
must be borne in mind that, as far as is known, seals were not
used by the Anglo-Saxons, 155 whose charters were given cum
sigillo sanctce cntcis, i.e., with a cross, or, as they called it,

Christ s Rood Token, 150 prefixed to their names, and not sub
sigillo. Nevertheless, instances of some six or seven Anglo-

50
Ancient Kalendars and Inventories of the Exchequer, vol. ii.
p. 265.
51
Ibid. p. 274.
152
Ibid. 275.
53
Nichols, Excerpta Historica, p. 149.
154
Those who are interested in British sphragiology may consult with
advantage
Laing s Scottish Seals, the Monasticon, and the Transactions of the different Archaeo
logical Societies, passim.
155
"Anno ab incarnatione Domini MIV. indictione II. tempore sEthelredi Regis
AngliiE, pair is S. Edivardi Regis ct Confessoris, qnidam nobilis Wlfriciis, cognomen lo
Spot, constrnxit abbatiam Burtoniam vocatam, dedityue ei omnem hiereditatem paternam
appredatam septingcntas libras. Et quia nondum utebantur sigillis in Anglia, fecit
donum suum his confirmari subscriptionibns
prout in charla continctur" (Annals of
Burton. Annales Monastici, vol. i. p. 183. Rolls Edit).
56
Cf. the Codex Dipl. aevi Sax. passim.
2io Things Consecrated.

Saxon matrices are known, but they appear to have been

157
employed exclusively for foreign correspondence.
Our Ladye occurs on abbey, collegiate, and corporation
seals and also on those of private individuals.
;

A common the image of our Blessed Ladye with her

form is

Divine Son, and the owner of the seal in a suppliant attitude

before her and with a label bearing the invocation
;
S^atec : +
3Dei memento *
mef* And in the case of the owner being
entitled to coat-armour, a shield of the armorial bearings is

added, as in the instance of John de Shareshulle, precentor of

Exeter, whose seal is affixed to a charter dated the /th of June,
examples of the inscriptions or
158
I355- I may add one or two
legends on these seals. The General History of Norfolk gives
one: + Skater gancta Dei 0ft ttlu cura meu 159
Another given in the Monasticon: + tiftitgO
is toga pCO
me to turn 0empec tftn Do me* 100
The seal of the Monastery of our Ladye of Graces, near the
Tower was founded by Edward the Third,
of London, which
represents our Blessed Ladye with her Divine Son,
and the
King praying to her on the dexter side, and divers other persons
also praying on the left underneath are the royal arms, on
;

account of its royal foundation.

161
The seal of Eton represents
the Assumption of our Ladye, attended by six angels, with the
royal arms beneath her, as was customary in royal
foundations.
It may be presumed that the seal of the Black Friars of Oxford
commemorates the act by which St. Edmund of Canterbury
162
espoused himself to our Blessed Ladye.

157
See the subject fully discussed in a most interesting article by the late Sir

Frederick Madden, K.U., Journal of the Royal ArcJuzol. Inst. vol. xiii. pp. 355371-
Journal of the Royal Archival. Inst. vol. xviii. p. 362.
150
Pp. 547, 624. Norwich, 1829.
160
T. ii. p. 346.
161
Ibid. t. v. p. 717.
162
S. p. 122.
 Death and Burial. 2 1 1

7. DEATH AND BURIAL.

For though, in feudal strife, a foe
Hath laid our Ladye s Chapel low,
Yet still, beneath the hallowed soil,
The peasant rests him from his toil,
And dying, bids his bones be laid
Where erst his simple fathers prayed.
Marmion. 163

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries few wills were

made by which the testators do not bequeath their souls to
God and our Ladye. These wills teem with proofs of the love
of our forefathers for our Blessed
Ladye.
The will of Henry the Seventh affords an interesting
example. After recommending his soul into the most merciful
hands of his Redeemer, he says :

My
moost mercifull redemer, maker, and salviour, I truste
"

by the special grace and mercy of thi most Blissid Moder evir
Virgyne, oure Lady Saincte Mary in whom, after the in this ;

mortall lif, hath ever been my moost singulier trust and con
fidence, to whom in al my necessities I have made my continuel
refuge, and by whom I have hiderto in all myne adversities,
ever had my special comforte and relief, wol nowe in
my moost
extreme nede, of her infinite pitie take my soule into her hands,
and it present unto her moost dere Son. Whereof swettest
Lady of mercy, veray Moder and Virgin, welle of pitie and
surest refuge of all nedefull, moost humbly, moost entierly and
moost hertely I beseche thee."
lw

One feature is well deserving of notice the common desire

to be buried in the or before some
Ladye Chapel, favourite
image of our Ladye. It is not unlikely that these frequented
spots were selected for interment as being the more sure of
securing a greater share of the prayers of the faithful, and of
candles and alms for the repose of their souls. Thus an old

]6a
Edinb. 1808, pp. 68, 69. This refers to the Chapel of St. Marye of the
Lowes (de Lacubus), which gives its name to the lake "By lone St. Marye s silent
:

lake" (Ibid. p. 67). It was laid waste by the clan of Scott in a feud with the Cran-
stouns (Ibid. p. xxxix. note).
164
London, 1775, P- 2 -
212 Things Consecrated.

was buried in the

poem recounts that Mold Nevill Ladye Chapel
at Worksop Priory :

Afore our Blessed Ladye, next the stall side

There may she be scene, she is not to hyde. 165

St. Augustine
160
and St. Maximin of Tours 167 bear witness
to the desire of the early Christians to have their sepulchres

joined to those of saints and martyrs as expecting greater

security to their Thus King Arthur, after
souls thereby.
receiving his mortal wounds, caused himself to be removed to

Glastonbury, so that he might die under the protection of our

Blessed Ladye, to whom he was so devoted. 168
There is some
the death of the brave old
thing truly noble and majestic in

Earl Sigwearth, the friend of Leofric and Godgifu. Feeling his

last end at hand, he retired to die in the celebrated Abbey of
St. Marye at York, which he had founded. When death seized
his extremities, he desired once more to be arrayed in martial

panoply with his shield, sword and spear, that, as a loyal soldier
to the last, he might thus appear in the presence of his Creator.

Truely did he die a Bonus Miles Christi.

As William the Norman lay dying in his camp at Rouen,
he heard a bell tolling at an early hour. He asked what bell
it was his attendants replied that it was the bell for Prime in
;

the Cathedral of our Ladye. Then the King, with the greatest
devotion, eyes raised his to Heaven, and stretching out his
hands, exclaimed I commend myself to my Ladye Saint
"

Marye the Mother of God, that she with her prayers will
reconcile me to her most dear Son our Lord Jesus Christ," and
then expired. 169
It is recorded that Leofric and Godgifu were buried in the

porches of their great Abbey Church at Coventry. This seems

to have been an Anglo-Saxon custom. 170 Leland mentions
171
many instances of persons buried before our Ladye and the
;

165
S. p. 254.
166
Lib. De cura pro martyr, cap. xviii.
167 Horn. De martyr.
168
S. p. 45.
169 66 1.
Orci. Vitalis, lib. vii. p.
170 Cf. Bede. Opp. t. ii.
pp. 181, 189, and t. iii. p. 179. Edit. Giles. Rock
notices that fortiais is not used for porch, but for the aisle of the church
(vol. ii. p. 309).
171 vol. iv. pt.
Itin. vol. iii.
pp. 78, 79; ii. pp. 61, 153.
 Death and Burial. 213

Series abounds with similar notices. Thomas de Cobham, Bishop

of Worcester, who died on August 20, 1327, in his great desire
to ensure being buried before our Ladye, bequeathed to the
altar before which he should be interred a silver gilt image of
the Blissful Mother of God, which he had received as a present
from the Abbot of St. Augustine s, Bristol. 172
Then there were the Chantry chapels. A chantry was an
endowment either in land or in money for the support of one
or more priests to celebrate Mass daily for the soul of the
173
founder, and on certain days to give a dole to the poor.
Chantries were of two kinds either for a limited period, or
;

174
perpetual, according to the terms of the foundation. With
the Anglo-Saxons, and down to the great apostasy,
"
"

singing
was the word usually employed to signify the celebration of
175
Holy Mass. Hence the endowment for a Mass was called a
chantry. Often illustrious personages would build a chapel in
which their bodies were to be buried, and in which the Mass
for their soul was to be celebrated and for this reason they ;

were named chantry chapels. The number of chantries which

existed in England is unknown, but Fuller says that if Hercules "

may be measured from his foot, a probable conjecture may be

made of them, from those which we find founded at St. Paul s
Cathedral in London," which were returned to be of the number
of forty-seven. 170 Many of these chantry chapels yet exist, as
at Ely, Wells, Winchester, and elsewhere. One of the gems of
Yorkshire is the Waterton Chapel at Methley, built by Sir Robert
Waterton, the elder, in I424.
177
He was a Privy Councillor
S. P 254.
.

o
173
Cf. Valor Ecclesiastic**, t. i. p. 63.
174
Cf. Wills of the Northern Counties. Surtees Society, pp. 20, 47, 50, 52, 105,
III, 112. Also Test. Ebor. i. St. Paul s, p. 19, 20, 21, 335;
passim; Dugdale,
also S. pp. 8, note, 138; also Test. Vetust. p. 143, for the chantry founded at
Leicester in the new Church of our Ladye by John of Gant ; also Ibid. pp. 215,
257, S8i.
175
Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. Edit. Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 404.
The Accompt of the Prioress of Bray contains an entry : Paid for howseling
brede, syngyng brede and wyne \d." (Mon. Angl. t. iii. p. 359). Hence it appears
that altar breads were called singing breads, and the particles used for the communion
of the faithful houseling breads.
176
Taylor, Index Monasticus Dioc. Norv. Introd. p. xv.
177
Before succeeding to his brother, Sir John Waterton of Waterton and
Methley, who had been Master of the Horse of Henry V. at Agincourt, he had been
Governor of Pontefract Castle. He is the Sir Robert mentioned in Riihard II.
Act ii. Sc. i.
214 Things Consecrated.

and a distinguished statesman. 178 He made a provision for the

of three chaplains for ever, for to sing for the health of
support
the souls of himself and of Cecily, his wife, and King Richard
the Second, and Henry the Fourth, one of whose
King
executors he was. 179 Their recumbent figures yet exist, and
180
both he and Lady Waterton wear collars of SS.
Our forefathers eagerly sought the intercession of our Blessed

Ladye at their funerals. John Lord Scrope of Masham, by his

will dated July i, 1441, desired to be buried in the Chapel of
181
My
"

St. Stephen, in York Minster, adding these directions :

corpse to be preceded by twenty-four men clothed in white

gowns with hoods, each of them carrying in his hands a new

pair of wooden beads for the occasion, being all alike, without
carrying any lights and that the said twenty-four poor men
;

182
. . . both during the Dirige
shall recite and during the Mass,
the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Marye, beseeching God that
183
He would grant to my soul life everlasting."
John White, cloth merchant of Beverley, by his will dated
September 10, 1453, leaves to thirteen poor men a white gown
and hood and a pair of shoes each, on condition that they kneel
round his corpse on the day of his burial, and recite the Psalter
of our Ladye, and that for the eight days following they shall
184
stand or sit around his grave, and recite the aforesaid Psalter.
Anne Buckenham of St. Edmund s-bury in 1539, "leaves
id. to a poore body by the space of an whole yeare that wolde
saye y
c
psalter of oure Ladye everie Saturdaye."
185
And Sir
John Milborne, draper, Lord Mayor of London in 1521, founded
a God s house for thirteen bedesmen near the Church of the
Crutched Friars, who were to attend daily the Mass at eight
o clock to be sung at the altar of our Ladye, in the middle aisle

178 Pell Records, pp. 291, 335, 379; and Fxdera, t. iv. passim. Hagse Comit,
1740. Also Acts of the Privy Council, passim.
170 iv. pt. Edit. cit.
Fadera, t. ii.
p. 30.
180
Chtirches of Yorkshire, vol. i.
p. ii. Leeds, 1844. Cf. Whitaker, Loidis and
Elmete, where his tomb is figured.
181
See S. p. 261.
In Catholic England the Vespers and Matins of the Dead were called Placebo
182

and Dirige, being the words with which the antiphons commence hence the term :

Dirge, which included also the Mass of Requiem.

183
Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 187.
184
Ibid. p. 167.
iss
Bury Wills, p. 138.
 Death and Burial. 215

of the church, and that before the beginning of the said Mass

they should stand round the tomb of Sir John, and severally,
two and two of them together, shall say the psalm DC Profundis,
and a Pater, Ave, Creed, and Collect for the prosperous estate
of the said Sir John and Dame Johan, their children and friends
now living, and for their souls when dead. 186 This evidence
proves how highly our forefathers valued the prayers of the
blessed poor.
At great funerals it was customary to carry banners bearing
the image of our Ladye. Among the banners delivered out of
the Tower in the 33rd of y entierments
Henry the Sixth, "for
e

187
of the iii. Queenes were iiij. banners beten of our Ladye."

At that of Elizabeth of York banners of our Ladye, of her

Salutation, Assumption, and Nativity were borne near the car
188
by knights and esquires. Sir David Owen, knight, by will
dated February 20, 1529 desires "my body to be buried in the
Priory of Esseborne, after the degree of a banneret, that is, with
helmet and sword, my coat-armour, my banner, my standard,
my pendant, and set over a banner of the Holy Trinity, one of
our Ladye, and another of St. George." 189 And at the "great
and solemne obit kept at Paules in London, on June 7, 1539,
for the Empresse, late wyf to Charles the Fifte, there were foure
other harrouldes houldinge foure other banners of white sarcenet
richly guilded with the images of our Ladye and St. Elizabeth,
190
in their mourninge gownes and coate armours."
The tombstones of our forefathers were proof of the love of
those whose remains they covered for the Blissful Queen of
Heaven. John Fabian, giving directions for his tombstone to
his executors, says that :
"

On
the upper part of that gravestone
I will be sett a plate, and thereyn graven a figur of our Ladye

with her Child sittying in a sterr, and under that ii. figurys with
the children before specified, and either of the said ii
figures
holding a rolle wheron upon the mannys part I will be graven
Sl^aCta 9?)ari.
>tella And upon the wommannys rolle
186
Stowe. Edit. Strype, bk. ii. p. 74. Cf. Herbert, Great Livery Companies of

London, vol. ii.

p. 193, note. London, 1836.
187
Archceologia, vol xvi. p. 124.
iss
p
Prfcy urse Expenses, Introd.
189 Test. Vtt. p. 700.
lao Chronicle of England during the reign of the Tudors, 1485 1
559- By Charles
Wriothesley, Windsor Herald, vol. i.
p. 97. Camden Society.
2l6 Things Consecrated.
191 citizen of
&UCCUCr0 pit00ima nobt 0." John Denham,
London, and draper, in his will dated April 5, 1532, says:
Also executors buy and provide for me a
"

I wil that my
stone of the value of five marks to lie upon my grave with an

image of myself, and over the head of the same image a picture
of the Assumption of our Blessed Ladye."
192
The brass monu
mental plate of Geoffrey Fyche, dean of St. Patrick s, Dublin,
represents him on his knees before Our Ladye of Pity.
193
At
Northleach there is the effigy of William Lawnder, from whose
mouth issues a label bearing this invocation to our Blessed
Ladye :

SD J&egina poli meuiatrtjc egto JUfonBet

Panel from the Tomb of Lady Montacutc in Oxford Cathedral.

A tombstone in the Church of St. Lawrence, Norwich, was

inscribed :

195
9J9ater 3l%e0u <2njri0ti pogt Ijoc ejctttum flolng Bonct gattlmim gitte fine,

Several of the female figures round the tomb of Richard

191
New Chronicles of England and France. Reprint, vol. i.
pref. p. x. Cf.

Blomefield, Hist, of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 728 for another interesting tombstone.
192
Stowe. Edit. Strype, bk. iii.
p. 269.
Figured in Mason s Hist, and Antiq. of the Collegiate and Cathedral Church
193

of St. Patrick s, Dublin, p. 146 ; and in the new edition of Archdall s Monasticon,
vol. ii.
p. 88.
194
Haines, Manual of Momimental Brasses, p. 100.
195
Blomefield, vol. ii. p. 678.
 Death and Burial. 217

Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, hold a pair of beads in their

hands, all with tassels at the end. 196
Weever has preserved from oblivion many old English
epitaphs,which usually request a Pater noster and an Ave
Marie for the departed one or two examples will suffice
; :

Of your cherite say a Pater noster and an Ave

For the soul of William Pratte, sometym of Pekerle,
On whos soul Jesu have mercy. 197
William Goldhirst and Margaret his wife

Vpon whos sowls Jesu have mercy,

That for vs say a Pater noster and an Ave^
Robert Trappes was twice married, he died in 1526, and
was buried in St, Leonard s, Foster Lane, London. This was
his epitaph :

When the bells be merely roung,

And the Masse deuoutly soung,
And the meate merely eaten,
Then sail Robart Trappis his wyflfs and
his chyldren be forgotten.
Wherfor Jesu that of Marye sproung,
Set their soulys thy Saynts among,
it be
Though vndeservyd on their syde,
Yet good Lord let them euermor thy mercy abyde.
And of your cheritie
For their soulys say a Pater noster and an Ave.
"

The Agnes and Joan (his wives), inlaid

pictures of Robert,
in says
brasse,"Weever, "seeme thus to speake," i.e., labels,
thus inscribed, issued from their mouths :

Sancta Trinitas unus Dens miserere nobis,

Et ancillis tnis sperantibus in te.

O Mater Dei memento met.

199
Jesu mercy, Ladye help.
Here is another one of the year 1514:
Marye moder mayden clere
Pray for me William Goldwyre,
And for me Isabel his wyf.
Ladye for thy loyes fyf.
Hav mercy on Christian his second wyf,
Swete Jesu for thy 20
woundys fyf.
96
Description of the BeaucJiamp Chapel at Warwick. London, 1804, plate vi.
197
Ancient Fvnerall Monuments. London, 1631, p. 430.
198
Ibid. p. 404.
199
Ibid. p. 392.
200
Ibid. p. 6 1 8.
2i8 Things Consecrated.

The Lord of St. John, William Weston, the brave old Lord
Prior of the Knight Hospitallers in England, who had been one
of the heroes of Rhodes, died of grief the day his noble Order
was suppressed. "Vpon the seventh day of May, 1540," says
being Ascention day, and the same day of the dissolu
"

Weever,
tion of the house (the Priory at Clerkenwell), he was dissolued

by death, which strooke him to the heart, at the first time when
he heard of the dissolution of his Order." On a brass plate over
his tomb were inscribed the lines more pious than artistic :

Ecce quern cernis tuo nomini semper devotum

Suscipe in sinnm, Virgo Maria, tuum.
Spes me nonfallat quam in te semper habebam,
201
Virgo dafacilem . . ,

Verydifferent were the dying thoughts of one whom English

men have cause to execrate. Henry the Eighth, of whose early
devotion to our Blessed Ladye many proofs have been given
in this book, begins his will In the name of God and of the
:
"

Glorious and Blessed Virgin our Lady Seinct Marye, and of all
the Holy Company of Heaven." He says Also we do :
"

instantly requyre and desire the Blessed Virgin Marye His

(God s) Mother with all the Holy Company of Heaven con
tinually to pray for us and with us whiles we lyve in this

Woorld, and of passing out of the same, that we

in the Time
may the sooner atteyn everlasting Lief after our departure out
of this transitory Lief, which we do both hope and clayme by
Christes Passion and Woord." 202
The Defender of the Faith
"
"

sits in his chair of death, for

recline on a couch he cannot,

Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens,

with the leaves of his life s book unfolded before him. They do
not of rich foundations to the glory of God and the honour
tell

of His Blessed Mother, like those of his royal predecessors.

201
Ibid. p. 430. The rest of the line is missing. The Order of the Knights
Hospitallers, not being a monastic order, was not included in the Act of Dissolution
f I it was dissolved
S39> by a special Act of May 7, 1540, Stat. 32, Hen. VIII.
c. xxiv. The Lord Prior, as Lord of St. John, sat in the House of Lords as premier
lay-baron, after the viscounts, and before the barons.
202
The Life and Death of the RenownedJohn Fisher, Bishop of Rochester.
Given in

By Thomas D.D. London, 1740, pp. 256 260; also in Dodd s Church
Bailey,
History of England. Edit. Tierney. London, 1839, vol. i. Append, p. 454.
 Death and Bitrial. 219

They do not tell of lavish expenditure on the houses of God

or zeal for their beauty, after the example of Ine of the West
Saxons. He trembles as he reads the black and damning register
of plundered shrines. No priest of God is at his side to whisper
words of repentance, and of supplication to our Ladye, or to
administer the last rites of Holy Church and the sin-forgiving
Sacrament of Extreme Unction. He was excommunicate he ;

had put away his sainted Queen, and had first married and
then put to death his own natural daughter, Ann Boleyn 203 ;

he had stolen the property of the house of God, 204 and had
desecrated the sanctuaries of the Blessed Mother of God, and
caused her venerated images of Walsingham and other places
to be burnt heedless of the maledictions invoked by the pious
;

donors on the sacrilegious robber be he who he might 205 he

had seized the rich endowments of the religious houses which
constituted the patrimony of the blessed poor of Christ he had ;

caused numberless poor to be executed for following his royal

206
example, by thieving but then he had driven them to it by
robbing them himself of their patrimony finally, on him lay ;

the innocent blood of Cardinal Fisher, of his trusty and loyal

203
Sanderus, De Origine ac progressu schismatis Anglicani. Col. Agripp, 1585,
Lewis s translation. London, 1877, Introd. ; also Bailey, Life of Bishop Fisher,
ch. vii.
204
In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, there is a roll of parchment fifty-four feet
long containing a list of the royal thievings of Henry VIII. entitled, "The Declara

tion off Thaccompte of Sir John Williams, Knight, late Master and Treasurer of the

Jewelles and Plate which were the late Kinge s Henrye the Eighth, and found in
sundri monasteries, priories, cathedrals, churches, and colleges at his Majestie s
visitation."
205
Cf. e.g ., the charter of ^Ethelberht, the first
Anglo-Saxon Christian King, to
Rochester Cathedral A.D. 604 : Si quis
prasumpserit minuere, aut contradicere,
. .

in conspectu Dei sit damnatus et sanctomim

ejus, hie et in ceterna sacula, nisi emenda-
verit ante ejus transitum quod inique gessit contra Christianitatem nostram (Cod. DipL
cevi Sax. torn. i. p. i). The undated charter of Earl Leofric to Evesham says Si :

qui sunt qui huic mea donationi nocere volunt, vel adversari moliuntiir, in profundum
infer ni descendant viventes et perpetuis pcenis mancipati judicinm ultionis percipiant cum
impiis, nisi ante mortem ad satisfactionem venerint, et reatum suum agnoscentes, pceni-
tentiam egerint (Ibid. vol. iv. p. 272, ch. dccccxxxiii.). His son, yElfgar, is more
terse : Si quis de aecclesia retraxerit, de regno Christi retrahatur (Ibid.
p. 297, ch.
dccccxliii. ) ; and in another : Si aliquis ei abstulerit, cum diabolo Beelzebub, nisi

pcenituerit, permanent (Ibid. p. 298, ch. dccccxliv.). For the fate of those who have
held abbey lands, cf. Spelman, History of Sacrilege. All the children of Henry VIII.
died without issue.
206
Holinshed says that during the reign of Henry VIII. no fewer than twenty-two
thousand persons were executed for theft.
 22O Things Consecrated.

Lord High Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, of the Carthusians,

of Sir David Gonson 207 and Sir Adrian Fortescue, Knights of
St. John, and many other martyrs these were the works that
"

were to follow him." In his last sickness he was always

muttering about monks and friars."
208
When he was told that
"

he was at the point of death, he called for a goblet of white

wine, and turning to one of his horrified attendants exclaimed,
"

All is lost !"

209
As Ward expresses it :

Black Sacriledge, Blood spilt, Blood stain d,

And Schism brought into his Nation,
Stern Conscience, and black Desperation,
Affrighted his expiring Ghost,
And his last words were ALL is LOST !

A fearful exit !
210

His corpse was carrried from London to Windsor for burial ;

and it rested the first night at the Monastery of Sion, which he

had suppressed. The leaden coffin burst, and the next morning
when the attendants went with the plumbers to repair it, a dog
was found lapping and licking up the King s blood, as it befell
211
King Achab.
So died by the just judgment of God the despoiler of
ENGLAND THE DOWER OF MARYE.

207 His name often occurs in the Proces Verbanx of the English Language of the
Order, and generally with the addition of "ye goocle knyghte."
208
Sander. Edit. Lewis, p. 164, note 2.
20y
Ibid. text.
210
Reformation, canto i. p. 62.
England s London. 1719. Not less horrible
was the death of the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, who had despoiled the great
sanctuaries of our Ladye in Constantinople. For the dreadful account see Cedrenus,
Compendium historiarum.
811
Sander, ubi sup. p. 112, note 5.
 PART THE THIRD.
The Iconography of oztr Blessed Ladye in
England.

Et
diets nos lapides et parietes ac tabellas adorare. Non est ita, ut
diets,Imperator, sed ut memoria nostra excitetur, et ut stolida et imperita
crassaque metis nostra erigatur et in altum provehatur per eos quorum hccc
nomina et quorum quorum sunt imagines; et non tanquam
appellationes, et
Deos, 11 1 tit non cnim spcm in illis habemus. Ac si quidem
inq nis ; absit,

imago sit Domini, dicimus Domine Jesu Christe Fili Dei succurre et salva
nos ; sin autem Sanctce Matris cjus, dicimus Sancta Dei Genitnx Domini
Mater, intercede apud filium tuum verum Deum nostrum, ut salvas facial
animas nostras.
St. Gregory to the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, A.D, 787. *

I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
Sit vobis tanquam in imagine descripta virginitas vitaquc Beatcc Maria;
de qua, velut spccido, refulgct species castitatis et forma virtutis. Hinc
sumatis licet exempta vivendi.
2
St. Ambrose.

THERE was an image of our Ladye at Glastonbury which was

traditionally said to have been wrought by St. Joseph of
Arimathea. 3 King Arthur also is related to have brought
an image of our Ladye from Jerusalem, as I have mentioned
4
in the Series under Stowe, formerly called Wedale.
When St. Augustine and his companions came into the
presence of ./Ethelberht, King of Kent, in the year 597, they
bore a silver cross, and the image of our Lord and Saviour
painted on a board, imaginem . . . in tabula depictam? but
1
Second Council of Niccea. Labbe, t. vii. col. 14. Epist. i.
2
Lib. ii. De Virgin.
3
S. p. 280.
4
S. p. 304.
3
Opp. vol. ii.
p. 103. Edit. Giles.
222 Iconography.

Venerable Bede says nothing about any image or picture of

our Ladye, although modern artists introduce one when por
traying the arrival of St. Augustine, and omit the historical
6
image of our Lord as described by Ven. Bede.
In 672, or seventy-five years after the arrival of St. Augustine
in England, Abbot Bennet Biscop went to Rome, whence, as
Ven. Bede records, he brought back with him pictures or sacred
representations imagines to adorn the Church of St. Peter
which he had built namely, an image of the Blessed Mother
of God and Ever Virgin Marye, and of the Twelve Apostles,
with which he intended to adorn the central roof of the nave,
on boarding placed from one wall to the other, also some
representations from ecclesiastical history for the south wall,
and others from the Revelations of St. John for the north wall
"

here Ven. Bede explains the reasons why Abbot Biscop brought
these images so that every one who entered the church, even if
"

they could not read, wherever they turned their eyes, might have
before them the amiable countenance of Christ and His saints,
although but in a picture, and with more watchful mind might
reflect either upon the benefits gratiam of the Incarnation of
our Lord, or having as before their eyes the peril of the Last
if

Judgment, might remember to make a more strict examination

of conscience districtius se examinare meminissent." 1 So that
the earliest introduction of images into England was for the
purpose of instructing the ignorant.
Although Ven. Bede has left no record of the type of this

picture of our Ladye, it is evident from his words that it must

have been of the Greek School that is, of the St. Luke design,
;

as it is called. It was picture of the Blessed Mother of God

"a

and Ever Virgin Marye" consequently it represented her as

Mother of God with her Divine Son in her arms to recall to
"

the beholders the benefits of the Incarnation," since it was

through her that God the Son became Incarnate, and took
flesh of her.
Now at the time when Abbot Biscop was in Rome, the
Greek, or St. Luke, type of our Blessed Ladye was all prevalent,
and it was evidently one of these pictures which St. Bennet
6
Pictorial Bible and Church History. By the Rev. H. Formby, vol. iii.

P- 275-
7
Vite BB. Abbahim. Opp. vol. iv. p. 368. Edit. Giles.
 Preliminary Remarks. 223
8
Biscop brought with him to England. Happily an example of
an Anglo-Saxon representation of our Blessed Ladye with her
Divine Son in her arms has been preserved, and it is of the
St. Luke type. It is a rude figure, in incised lines, on the lid
of the coffin of St. Cuthberht, presumed to be the work of
EadfriS, Bishop of Lindisfarne, in the year 698. Here, accord
is an image of the St. Luke
ingly, type executed in the North,
and by a North-countryman, twenty-six years after the intro
duction of the prototype into England by St. Bennet Biscop
in 672. The unskilfulness of the hand which traced a figure
so grotesque does not diminish its value in point of
evidence.
The
celebrated Book of Kells in Ireland, which is assigned
to the year 700 or thereabouts, contains a most valuable
illumination of our Blessed Ladye with her Divine Son and ;

the limner could not but have taken his outlines from an
original of the St. Luke type, although the treatment presents
allthe rude characteristics of early Irish art, and the right hand
of our Lord is not raised in the usual attitude of blessing. The
traditional colours of the garments have yielded to the Celtic
ideas of the beautiful.
She wears a purple garment, semeed with
leaves of Shamrock,
which are bare the sleeves are blue above
reaching to her feet, ; ;

is another robe and her head is surrounded by an elaborate

;

nimbus. Our Lord has no nimbus. He is seated on His

Mother s knee, His right hand resting on hers, and His left
placed on her breast, and He is looking towards her. He is
clothed in a green upper tunic with a red border reaching to
His knee, and under it a yellow garment is displayed which
falls to his feet, which, like those of His Mother, are bare. 9

Thus the earliest evidence extant bears out what has been
said, that the St. Luke type of our Ladye was the prevailing
one in England ;
and consequently proves that England closely
followed Rome in Christian art.

8
By the St. Luke type I mean the form exemplified in the celebrated picture
in the Basilica of St. Marye Major in Rome, which is attributed Luke. Cf.
to St.
Act. SS. t. viii. oct. p. 295. Also Piazza, Christianorum in Sanctos, &c., devotio
ii. c.
vindicata, part 5, p. 572. Panonni, 1751.
9
Figured in plate 57 of the Facsimiles of the Paleographic Society ; also in
chromo-lithograph, by Westwood, Palccographia Sacra Pictoria, London, 1845.
224 Iconography.

In an illumination of the ninth century in the Psalter of

^Ethelstan, which gives the Ascension of our Lord, our Blessed
Ladye is represented standing with her arms extended, but not
raised she wears a blue robe, with red sleeves, and a green
;

mantle-veil. The nimbus is red, and the name MA-RIA is

added. 10 This seems to have been suggested by the orante
type.
In the foundation charter of Newminster, of Eadgar, now
in the BritishMuseum, of the year 966, our Ladye is represented
11
in the act of crowning the King a type which appears three
j

years later on a gold coin of the Emperor John I. Zimisces. 12

The illuminations of the Benedictionale of St. ^Ethelwald

represent our Ladye with the large mantle-veil, and are

Byzantine in character. 13

The great image of our Ladye of silver and gold put in

the church of Ely by Abbot Elsi, prior to A.D. 1016, was seated,
as well as all the images at Evesham, and the great silver one
at Lincoln.
After the arrival of the Normans sphragistic evidence begins ;

the earlier seals represent our Ladye seated, with the large
mantle-veil, and our Lord on her lap before her, frequently in
the act of blessing. Later, our Ladye appears seated, with a
mantle- robe, but no longer placed over the head, like the Greek
type. Her hair flows over her shoulders, sometimes she wears
a kerchief, and usually a crown indeed, images of our Ladye
;

14
not crowned, after the twelfth century, are the exception. In
the fourteenth century standing images of our Ladye began to
prevail. Instances occur, though rarely, of our Ladye being
represented alone, and without her Divine Son. Thus she is
figured in the large seal of Thomas de Melsanby, appointed

10
MS. Cott. Galba, A. xviii. It is figured in Westwood, ubi sup. In the orante
type our Blessed Ladye is represented standing with her arms extended.
11
Ibid. Vespas. A. vii. ; also Paleographic Society, plate 47.

Sabatier, Description generate dcs Monnaies Byzantines.

12
Paris, 1862, vol. ii.

p. 141, and plate xlvii. n. 17. See ante, p. 40.

13
Archnologia, vol. xxiv.
14 The following seals, chosen at random, all vary in the treatment of the subject,
which is the same, our Blessed Ladye seated, with her Divine Son in different
attitudes :
Kelso, Prioress and Convent of Clerkenwell, Worcester, Coventry,
Glastonbury, Cheshunt Nunnery, Suffield, Humberstayn, St. Neots, Spalding,
Binham, Pershore, Bardney, Shaftesbury, Walsingham, Arbroath, and Haddington
{Mon. Angl. sub nomm. ; Laing, Catalogue of Scottish Seals. Edinburgh, 1850).
 Preliminary Remarks. 225

Prior ofColdingham A.D. 1233. She is seated, crowned, her

righthand lies on her breast, and in her left she holds a globe
surmounted by a cross. In order that there may be no mistake
as to her identity, a scroll or label, on the right side of her head,
bears her name MARIA. 15 The addition of the name proves
that this representation of our Ladye alone was unusual.

Although I have not ventured as yet to form a decided

opinion, think there are very good grounds for believing, as
I

the different seals

all vary, that they represented the principal

image of our Ladyc in their various localities.

When it is borne in mind that the earliest painting of our
Ladye extant represents her as seated, with her Divine Son on
her knee, 16 and that this seated type prevailed generally, but not
exclusively, until the fourteenth century, and taking into con
sideration that the seated attitude implies dignity, authority,
and power, 17 it would seem as if the representation of our Ladye
in this posture implies a direct acknowledgment of the trans
cendent dignity of the Mother of God, whom our Anglo-Saxon
forefathers called the Queen of the whole world. The Great
Seals of England from that of St. Eadward to our most Gracious
Queen (whom God preserve), represent the sovereigns seated ;

whereas I cannot remember an instance of a non-official

personage in that attitude on his seal.

Such are the general outlines of the early Iconography of

our Blessed Ladye in England.

Before coming to the several types under which our Ladye

was represented in England, I must say a few words on the
names and types of her different images in general.
Many have arbitrary titles given them by the devotion of
the faithful. Thus Notre Dame des Vertus is the old name of
Our Ladye of Miracles, as used in the fourteenth century. 18
A celebrated but ungraceful modern image at Paris is called
Our Ladye of Victories ;
so is the votive picture of our Ladye
at Siena, offered by the Sienese after the battle of Arbia, under

15
Priory of Coldingham. Surtees Society, vol. xi. 1851, f. xviii. n. I.
16
See Northcote, Roma Sotterranea. Lond. 1869, pp. 258, 259.
17
E.g., as in the Consular diptychs. Cf. Gori, Thesaurus velenim Diptychorum
Consularium et ecclesiasticorum. Florentia:, 1759.
13
Hamon, Notre Dame de France, p. 101.
226 Iconography.

the title of Nevertheless the title of

Our Ladye of Victory.
Our Ladye of Victory alone, does not represent any fixed type
or form and the same may be said of many more titles of
;

that sort.
"

Themediaeval type of our Ladye the Cause of our Joy

"

19
in her hand.
represents her as holding a bunch of grapes
Elizabeth, of Edward the Fourth, in her will, dated
Queen
April 10, 1492, calls the Blessed Virgin Mother
of God, "oure
20
blessed Ladye Quene of comforte."
Many images again have the name of their sanctuaries, as
Our of Loreto, Our Ladye of Walsingham, and these of
Ladye
course, if copied, are same appellations. Such,
known under the
22
doubtless, were Our Ladye Our Ladye of Millain,
de Populo^
and our Ladye of Ardenberg. 23 Our Ladye of Boulogne is
always represented in a boat. Others are named from some
in
object in the picture, as the Vierge au panier, by Correggio,
the National Gallery the Virgcn de la Servilleta, or of the "

Napkin,"
in allusion to the dinner-napkin on which it was

painted.
Images of our Ladye which have a fixed type, are those of

Pity, of Counsel, of Perpetual Help, and a few more.

Good
And although they have a fixed type and name, they have
the piety of the
frequently another local title conferred by
neighbourhood. This, I believe, explains the common old
English title of Our Ladye of Grace.
In the Series, several names occur which speak for them
selves, and are local such as Our Ladye in the Rock, at Dover;
:

of the Oak, at Islington in the

in the Tower, at Coventry ;
;

Park, at Liskeard at the Oak, in Norwich at

;
the Pillar, in ;

24
St. Paul s, London at the Red Ark, at York, and at Beverley.
;

Withthese general data, I now proceed to examine some

of the details of the English Iconography of our Blessed Ladye.
19 Notrveaux Melanges d Archeologie, &c. Par le P. Ch. Cahier de la O de Jesus.

Paris, 1877, p. 209.

80
Nichols, Royal Wills. London, 1780, p. 350.
^ S. p. 38.
22
S. p. 115. Our Ladye of Millain have been a copy of Our Ladye della
May not
Scala at Milan? Lucy, Countess of Kent, and widow of Edmund Holland, Earl of

Kent, K.G., by her will dated 2 Hen. VI., left to the Provost
and Canons of Our
Ladye de la Scale at Milan 1000 crowns (Test. Vet, p. 205).
S. p. 257.
24 under the names.
S.
 The Immaculate, Conception. 227

2. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

A "

table of the
Conception
"

stood on the high altar of the

Church of Margaret, Westminster. 25
St.
The Conception of our Ladye has been treated in two ways :

historical and symbolical.

The historical supposes the
I.
representation of events and
circumstances under which the
mystery was operated, and these
visible circumstances denote the
hidden mystery. Of these
historical representations there are four
types :

r. The first is
designed from the account of the Conception
of our Ladye which is
supplied by the apocryphal gospel of her
nativity, and the proto-gospcl of Jacob. 20 It
represents St. Anne,
in her garden at
prayer, receiving by the mouth of an angel
the promise of the birth of the Blessed
Virgin Maryc, her
daughter, and St. Joachim receiving the same
promise in the
mountains whither he had retired. The "Guide of
Painting"
of Mount Athos follows this ancient
narration almost word for
27
word; and it appears also in the
poem of Hrotsuitha, the
learned nun of Gandersheim, who died A.D. 2S
The 999. German
translator of theGuide remarks that, in Northern
art, St. Anne
is
represented in her house, and not in her garden, in conse
quence of the difference between the customs of the North and
those of the East, where
people live more in the open air than
29
in their houses.

This representation is the most ancient.

2. The Greek and Sclavonic
diptychs give another repre
sentation, which is less happy. St. Joachim and St. Anne
meet,
after having received the
blessings and promise of the angel, and
tenderly embrace each other. This, according to the Bollandist,
25
S. p. 228.
26
Evangdia apocrypha. Edit. C. Tischendorf. Lipsia, 1853, 106.
pp. r,
Quoted in the Iconographie dc I Immaadee Conception de la Trcs-Sainte
Par Mgr. J. B. Malou, Vierge Marie.
eveque de Bruges. Bruxelles, 1856, p. 16.
27
Didron, Manuel d Iconographie Chretienne, p. 279. Cf. St. John Damascene,
Clamaverunt just,, Ubinam ? In
proprio horto consentaneus justorum preca-
. . .

ttoms locus. In horto preca fundcntes, hortum

priore huge fdiciorem eenuerunt
(Ot 11. DC Nativ. B.M. V. Opp. t. ii. n. 5, p. 852).
28
Schafer, Das Handbuch der Malcrei votn
Berge Athos. Trier i8<i<
p 276
Quoted by Malou, ubi sup.
29
Historia Nativitatis
laudabilisque conversations Intacta: Da Genitricis. Edit
Migne, Patrol. Lai. t. cxxxviii. coll. 1067, 1068.
228 Iconog raphy.
30
Father Papebrooch, was the Greek type of a chaste marriage.
Malou justly remarks that this was of all the most difficult
feature, and the least necessary to portray. Consequently,
from an iconographic point of view, this type is not deserving
than the
of praise. Although these diptychs are not earlier

seventeenth century, 31 this representation appears to be the

the conversion of the
reproduction of a type earlier than
Slavonic nation, and consequently anterior to the ninth century.
Malou says that it might go back even to the early ages of the
Church.
The meetingof St. Joachim and St. Anne is given in one of
the windows of Fairford Church. 32
3. The third type
Malou describes as simply hideous. It

under the form of a little nude, and

represents our Ladye child,

placed in the calix of a flower, to

denote the instant of her
creation. He attributes this composition of design to Father
Peter de Alva et Astorga, who gives this representation at the
33
head of his Momimenta Antiqua printed in i664, and of his
Radii Soils, in i666. 34
But Bourassee says that this type has
35
often been reproduced, and is of a much earlier date. Under
this heading may be classed the stained glass window in
36
Waddington Church.
4. fourth historical representation of the Immaculate
The
37
is modern.
Conception, that of the miraculous medal,
II. Symbolical.
Froma doctrinal point of view, the Immaculate Conception
is the mystery of the original holiness of the Blessed Virgin
Marye Mother of God. In a word, what has to be represented
is the immaculateness of our Ladye s conception.
Now wish emphatically to point out that the mere repre
I

sentation of our Ladye, standing, and alone, without any symbol

30
Ada SS. t. i. Mail, plate Iviii.
31
Notice sier V Iconographie sacrce en Russie. Saint Petersbourg, 1849, P- 45-

Quoted by Malou, ubi sup.

32
Joyce, Fairford Windows, p. 67. Arundel Society.
33 Monumenta Antiqua Imm. Conceptions SS, Virg. Maria:, ex novem auctoribus
collecta. Lovanii, 1664.
34Radii solis zeli seraphici caii veritatis pro Immaculate Conceptions mysterio
Virginis Maria, discurrentes per duodecim
classes auctorum. Lovanii, 1666.
35 Summa A
urea de Laudibus B.M. V. t. ii, col. 950, note. Edit. Migne.
36
S. p. 282.
37
Malou, ubi sup. pp. 20, 21.
 The Immaculate Conception. 229

or attribute of the mystery, does not, and cannot express her

Immaculate Conception. Thus Murillo s so-called Immaculate
Conception is nothing else than a fanciful representation of our
Ladye, but not one of our Ladye immaculately conceived.
Add the serpent under her feet, and the mystery of the Imma
culate Conception becomes at once symbolized. Indeed I do
not hesitate to express my conviction that, wherever the dragon
is represented at the feet of our
Ladye, no matter under what
"type"
she is figured, it has a direct allusion to her Immaculate
Conception. The Annunciation is given in the old gate at
Lincoln called the Stonebow. Our Ladye and the Archangel
occupy tabernacles on either side of the gate. Our Ladye is
standing, her hands are folded across her breast, and under her
feet is the dragon. I have carefully examined this statue.

This is abundantly manifest. Our mother Eve sinned by

eating of the apple, and so brought death on her posterity.
The Fathers constantly call our Ladye the second Eve, who
was to undo the work of the first Eve, and bring life to man.
The second Eve was to be in the state of the first Eve before
the Fall, that is, without sin. It is in this sense that Cornelius
a Lapide explains those words of the Canticles, Nigra sum sed
8 Our Ladye was dark, as a daughter of Eve, yet
*
formosa?
formosa, or beautiful, because she was free from original sin ;

singiilari Omnipotentis Dei gratia, ct privilcgio, intnitn mcritorum

CJiristi Jcsu Salvatoris hinnani generis, as it is defined in the
Bull Ineffabilis.
Now this is most beautifully expressed in the celebrated
window of the time of Edward the First in the Church of
St.Margaret, Oxford, but curiously enough the iconographic
importance of this representation seems, hitherto, to have
escaped notice. It is of the utmost value. The Maiden
Mother of God, the second Eve, is seated, looking with an
ineffably sweet expression towards her Divine Son, Who, with
His right hand raised, blesses His Mother, and with His left
places an apple no longer the pomum noxialc into her right
hand, as Hail My sweetest Mother,
"

if saying : ! full of grace,

38
Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram. Edit. Crampon. Paris, 1860, t. vii.

PP- 495. 496.

1)9
Qiiando pomi noxialis, In necem morsn rnit, &c. From the Hymn Pange
lingua gloriosi lanream certaminis, in the Missal, for Good Friday.
230 Iconography.

thou art the second Eve, I am the Blessed Fruit of thy womb
of which thou
frnetus I ciitris gcncrosi^l give thce the apple,

From the -window of St. Margaret s Church, Oxford, temp. Ed-ward /.

mayest eat, since by My merits and blessing I have preserved

thee from original sin. In thee I have made to live again that

40
From the Hymn Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterinm, in the Missal, for
Maundy Thursday.
 The Immaculate Conception. 231

which Eve killed. I, the Son of God and thy Son am the cause
of thy Immaculate Conception."
What is this but a literal, early English, pre-realization of the
words of the Definition in the Bull Incffabilis ? In this com
position the serpent was unnecessary. I do not, however,

wish to be understood as maintaining that the apple alone,

which our Ladye sometimes holds in her hand, as in the tale
of St. Mary s Abbey, York, ought to be thus interpreted but ;

that it bears this construction, when our Lord is represented

in the act of blessing His Maiden Mother and giving her
an apple.
Another symbolical representation of the Immaculate Con
ception occurs in two, at least, of the Prymers of Sarum Use,
41

and although it was adopted in England, there is, unfortunately,

no evidence that it was designed by an English artist. Malou
attributes Henry Stephanus, or Stephens, the celebrated
it to
Parisian printer, who gives it as a frontispiece to the work of

Josse Clichtoue, De
Puritate Conceptionis beate Marie Virginisf2 -

published Paris in 1513; but it occurs in the Hore dive

in

virginis marie sccundinu vcruvi nsum romamtm, printed at

Paris in 1508 by Thielmann Kerver, now in the Museum at
43
Maidstone, and consequently five years previously to the
celebrated picture of the Immaculate Conception by Gerolamo
da Cottignola, 44 dated 1513, to which Malou attaches such
45
importance. In this composition our Ladye is standing,
arrayed in an ample robe, her hair flowing over her shoulders,
with no veil, and her hands joined, but not clasped before her.
Above her God
the Father, of
is Whom
only the bust appears,
crowned, holding a globe surmounted by a cross in His left, and
blessing her with His right hand. Beneath Him is a scroll
containing the words, TOTA PULCHRA ES, AMIGA MEA, ET
MACULA NON EST IN TE. Our Ladye is surrounded by
numerous symbols, each named the sun, : electa ut sol ; the

41
Those of 1531, Paris, Regnault, f. cxxvi.b, and of 1534, Stonyhurst Library.
42
A copy of this rare book is in the Library of the Fathers of the London
Oratory.
43
Archffologia Cantiana, vol. ix. p. 196.
44
Now in the collection of Mr. Bromley Davenport, M.P., Wootton Hall,
Staffordshire. It is
fully described by Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna.
Edit. 1872, p. 53. Cf. also Del Rio.
48
Ubi sup. pp. 131, 132.
232 Iconography.

moon, pitkhra nt a gateway with turrets, Porta cocli ;

litna ;
a cedar, ccdrns cxaltata ; a rose-tree, plantatio roses ; a well,
Pnteits aquantm vivcntium ; a branch bearing flower, Virga

Jesse floruit ; a square garden with a hedge, Jiortus conclnsus ;

the lily, sicut lilinm inter spinas; a star, Stella marts; the Tower
of David, turris Davidica cum propugnaculis ; a mirror, speculum
sine macula; an olive tree, oliva spcciosa ; a fountain, fons
Jiortorum ; a city with gates, towers, and buildings, civitas Dei.

Passaglia, who has fully explained many of these symbols,

4C
develops them as evidences of the Immaculate Conception ;

and says Malou, is sufficient to persuade us that artists of

this,
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries may have had recourse to
them. 47
Now from this evidence it appears most probable that repre
sentations of our Blessed Ladye with God the Father blessing
her, orwith her Divine Son blessing her and presenting her with
an apple, or with the serpent under her feet, all have direct
reference to her Immaculate Conception. The Mortuary Roll
of John de Wygenhale, Abbot of West Dereham, Norfolk,
represents at the head, God the Father on a throne, with His
right hand raised in the attitude of blessing ;
in another com
partment immediately below Him
our Ladye, arrayed in a
is

mantle, her hair flowing, and her hands joined before her and ;

lower again is depicted the burial of the Abbot. 48 But,

although the Abbot is represented as a diminutive figure
on his knees at the right of the Throne of God the Father, it
is evident that the blessing is given not to him, but to our

Ladye, and consequently, that her Immaculate Conception is

here signified.
Thus there is evidence that the Immaculate Conception of
our Blessed Ladye was represented at an early period in
England ;
and such are the types in which it was figured
prior to the year 1540.
About the year 470, St.Pulchronius, Bishop of Verdun, on his
return from Rome, built a new church in honour of our Ladye,
and caused to be sculptured an image representing her with

46
Cf. De hmnaculato Deipara: semper Virginis Conceptit, Commcntarins. Auct.
Carolus Passaglia, S.J. Sac. Romse, 1854.
47 Ubi sup. p. 136.
48
Norwich vol. of the Royal Arch. Institute, p. 99.
 The Annunciation. 233

the serpent under her feet. 49 The Earl of Warwick, when he

was Governor of Calais, presented to our Ladye of Boulogne
an image of her with the devil under her feet, of silver
50
gilt.
At
the portal of the Chapter House at York is an image
of our Blessed Ladye with her Divine Son in her arms. She
is standing on a lion and a dragon.
The
serpent is also represented under the feet of our Blessed
Ladye the Angels Choir at Lincoln ; which Professor
in

Cockerell so much admired.

Richard Fitz Alan, fourth Earl of Arundel, by his will, dated
March 4, 1392, leaves to his daughter Alice, the wife of John

Charleton, Lord Powis, a diptych of gold enamelled ove un

ymagc dc la incarnacioun de notrc dame dcdeins, i.e., of the
51
Nativity of our Ladye.

3. THE ANNUNCIATION.

Ingressns Angelus ad earn dixit: A-ve gratia plena ^ Dominus tecum;

Benedicta tu in mulieribus.
St. Luke.

In the Benedictionale of St. ^Ethelwald, our Ladye is seated

and wears the large mantle-veil the Archangel is barefoot. 52
;

In another Anglo-Saxon MS. she is standing up, holding in

her left hand a scroll with the words, ECCE ANCILLA DNI
FIET M SCDM VBU TUUM. 53 In the MS. Horcs of the York
Use in the public library at Boulogne-sur-mer, 54 the Annun
ciation represents the Archangel kneeling on one knee,
our Ladye rises from prayer as if disturbed by his words
in sermone ejus she has flowing hair, and no veil, before
her is a vase with a lily bearing three flowers. This appears

49 diem 17 Febr. pp. 12, 13.

Act. SS. ad
Haignere, Notre Dame de Boulogne, p. 118.
50

81
Nichols, Royal Wills, p. 133.
52
Archaologia, vol. xxiv. plate x. p. 50.
53
Cott. MS. Caligula, A. vii. Figured by Strutt, Manners and Customs of the
English. London, 1774, vol. i. plate xxvi. fig. 2.
"
Marked MS. 44.
234 Iconography.

to have been the usual English form.

55
On English seals,
which represent the Annunciation, our Ladye is generally
standing.
The seated attitude of our Ladye is held to be the most
correct, Jews did not kneel habitually at prayer.
for the
Moreover, she was in her room ingressus Angelus ad earn
therefore the scene should be laid in the Holy House, and
not large halls with pillars, or the open air.

Anything inspired than the Annunciation designed

less

by Flaxman was never beheld by mortal eyes. Nevertheless

Mrs. Jameson has considered it worthy of admiration. 56
Several altars of the Annunciation are mentioned in the
Series.
In the English representations of the Annunciation a vase
of lilies is generally represented in the foreground. Modern
artists figure it as well, but they often destroy the symbolism
from knowing no better. The correct representation is one
stalk with three flowers, symbolising the spotless maiden
hood of our Ladye, before childbirth, in childbirth, and after
childbirth. 57

4. OUR LADYE IN GESINE, BEDGANG, OR CHILDBIRTH.

Quod ex te nascetnr Sanctum, vocabitur Films Dei.

St. Luke.

This title is intended in reality for the Nativity of our Lord.

In the Benedictionale of St. ^Ethelwald our Ladye is represented

as veiled and lying in bed, a female attendant veiled is placing

an ornamented pillow under her head, St. Joseph is sitting on
a chair at her feet, lower down, at the right of our Ladye, her

55
Cf. Will of Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winton, A.D. 1446 (Nichols, Royal
Wills. P. 324).
B6
Legends of the Madonna. Edit. 1872, p. 183. By mistake it is numbered
97 instead of 98. See list of illustrations, p. xi. For some excellent remarks
on the artistic treatment of the Annunciation, cf. Wiseman, Essays, &c. vol. i.
p. 517.
67 For full account Cf. Act. SS, t. iii. April ad diem 23, p. 239.
 Our Ladye in Gesine. 235

Divine Son, arrayed in swaddling clothes, lies in a manger,

between which and our Ladye s couch are the ox and the ass. 58
The wood-cut only gives our Ladye.

In another page of the same MS. our

Lady is represented on
a couch, with her Divine Son on her He has a cruciform
lap.
nimbus, whilst His Virgin Mother has none. 59

In 1325-6, Roger de Waltham erected in the Cathedral of

St. Pauls, London, a glorious tabernacle which contained the
"

image of the Blessed Virgin, sitting as it were in childbed, as

68
ArchtEologia, vol. xxiv. plate xii. p. 56.
09
Ibid, plate xv. p. 59. Cf. also Strutt, Manners and Customs of the English.

London, 1774, plate xxvii. fig. 3.

236 Iconography.

also of our Saviour in swaddling clothes lying betwixt the ox

and the ass, and St. Joseph at her feet" 60
Thus this representation of our Ladye was known to the

Anglo-Saxons ;
and
appears it often and in carved ivories
illuminated MSS. It was described as that of our Ladye in
gesine^ both in England and elsewhere nevertheless, this mode ;

of representing our Ladye is manifestly incorrect. The pains

of labour were the consequence of the sin of Eve ;
the Mother
of God, the second Eve, being exempt from original sin, suffered
them Jerome says that no midwife nor woman
and "

not, St.
with tender care was present" 62 Indeed this is evident from
the words of the Evangelist Pannis involvit infantem, et collo-
:

camt cum in prcesepio.^ Hence pictures and sculpture which

represent our Lord as nude, and lying on the ground, in fact,

in any other way than wrapped in swaddling clothes and in a

crib or manger, are directly at variance with the account given
in the Gospel. The ox and sheep are found in a representation
64
of the Nativity on a tomb bearing the date A.D. S43.

5.
THE ASSUMPTION.
In the English representations of the Assumption, our Ladye
is usually represented as standing, with her hands joined

80
S. p. 71.
61 from the old be in childbirth (Roquefort,
Gesina, in French gesine, \er\) gesir, to

Glossairc dc la langiie Romanic). Calix qua est de Capella Gesinrc Domino: nostrcr ;
also Ibid. Pro imaginibus Dei et Beatic Virginis matris SIKF a la gesine (Inventory of
the Church of Noviomagum, A.D. 1419, quoted by Ducange, sub voc. gesina.

Noviomagum may mean Nimegue, Lisieux, Noyon, Nuits, or Spires, I know not
which). Among the jewels of the Royal Chapel at Windsor was nnmn tabernacuhim
ct gesina Beata Maria; aim
pulchrum aim imagine S. Georgii . . .
imagine Joseph,
&c. (Man. Angl. t. vii. p. 1364). In June or July, 1419, Henry V. made at Maunt
certain ordinances for the government of his army. One was, For women that lye in
Gesem. "Also that no manner of man be so hardy to goe into no chamber or
lodging wher that any woman lieth in gesem (Nichols, Excerpta Historica, p. 29).
"

Cf. also Halliwell, Archaic and Provincial Words. Bedgang is the corresponding
old English word. See Lost Beauties of the English Language. By Charles Mackay,
LL.D. London, Chatto and Windus.
62
Contra Helvidium ; also S. Cyprian, Sermon on Nativity of our Ladye.
68
S. Luc. ii. 7. Cf. also Locri, Maria Augusta, lib. iv. cap. xiv. p. 511;

Molanus, De Hist. SS. Imaginum. Edit. Paquot. Lovanii, 1771, pp. 78, et seq. ;
Fordun, Scotichronicon. Edinburgh, 1759, lib. ii. capp. xxi. xxii. pp. 56, 57.
64
De Rossi, Inscriptions Christiana-, vol. i.
p. 54.
 The Assumption. 237

together before her, but not clasped, and her hair flowing down
over her shoulders borne up by angels, and frequently
:

crowned. Thus is she figured on both of the seals of Eton

05
College.
She is not however invariably crowned. The illuminated
charter of privileges to Eton of 1447,
represents our Ladye in

The Assumption of our Blessed Ladye in Fownhope Church.

her Assumption, with her arms extended, and the Most

Holy
Trinity in the act of crowning her. In the centre boss over the
entrance into the choir from the nave and in York
transept
Minster, our Ladye is represented in a vesica piscis, which is

65
See ante, p. 29. Cf. also Yorkshire
Archaeological Journal, 1870, p. 109, for
Assumption in window of Thornhill Church.
238 Iconography.
66
borne up by four angels, but she is not crowned. I have

often heard this particular figure spoken of as intended for the

Immaculate Conception, but, in the absence of the requisite
symbols, can only be intended for the Assumption.
it

The representation of the Assumption which depicts our

Ladye as throwing down her girdle to St. Thomas is apo
67
cryphal; it may be seen in the Dominican Breviary of 1514,
68
in the Office of the feast.

Our Ladye Pity was pre-eminently the favourite old

of
English representation of the Blessed Mother of God.

6. OUR LADYE OF PITY.

O vos omnes qui transitis per mam, attendite et videte si cst dolor, sicut
dolor uieus.

Our Ladye of Pity must not be confounded with Our Ladye

of Mercy. The title of Our Ladye of Pity is applicable solely
to one type, or representation that of Our Ladye of Mercy to ;

several. At
the Ladie of Pitties altar in the Galilee at Durham,
the picture represented our Ladye carryinge our Saviour on "

hir knee as He was taiken from the Crosse, a very dolorouse

An old inventory at Melford says that in the taber
aspecte."

nacle at the south end of the Jesus aisle "there was a fair
image of our Blessed Ladye having the afflicted Body of her
dear Son, as He was taken down, off the Cross, lying along
in her lapp, the tears, as it were, running down pitifully upon
her beautiful cheeks, as it seemed, bedewing the said sweet
Body of her Son, and therefore named The Image of our Ladye
69
of Pitty."
In Latin this representation of our Ladye is
66
Browne, History of the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter, York. London, 1847,
plate I2i.
67
Locri, Maria Augusta, lib. v. cap. xvii. p. 520.
68
Fol. 315 b.
69 Views of the most interesting Collegiate and Parochial Churches in Great Britain.
By John Preston Neale. London, 1825, vol. ii. sub Melford, not paginated.
"From the Moute of Calvery," says the Pylgiymage of Syr R. Guylfordc,
Knight, in 1506, "we descendyd and come to ye place assygnyd by a whyte
stone, where our Blessyd Lady moste dolorous Mother sat, hauynge in her lappe the
deed body of her dere son new taken downe from ye cross (p. 27. Camden Society, "

1851). Amongst the Royal Jewels in the Treasury, temp. Henry VIII., was "a
tabernacle of golde \vt our Ladye of Pyty, wt her sonne in her lappe," &c.
(Kaltndars and Inventories of the Exchequer, vol. ii.
p. 274).
 Our Ladye of Pity. 239

expressed by Pietas^ or Domina nostra de Pietate ;

71
in Italian,
la Pieta ; and in French, Notre Dame de Pitied

Pity in this use signifies compassion, i,e., fellowship in suffer

ing, and not mercy.
In the old English poem, Quia amore langueo, of about the
year 1430, our Blessed Ladye appeals to mankind. She says

Moder of mercy Y was for thee made :

Who nedith mercy but thou a-loone ?

To jeve grace and merci y am more glade

Than thou to aske.

My sone hath grauntide me for the sake

Every merciful praier that y wole haue,
For he wol no veniaunce take
If y aske mercy for thee, but that y schal haue.
Therfor axe thou merci, y schal thee saue,
With pitee y rue upon thee so,
I
longe for merci that thou schuldist craue.
Quia amore langueo.

Hence Our Ladye of Pity has a twofold meaning. She com

passionates and suffers with her Divine Son. And she is in
this type the object also of our compassion. This is well
expressed in a poem of the fourteenth century, entitled Our
Ladye s Lamentation, which represents our Ladye as speaking
to some happy mother, between whose joys and her sorrow she
draws a contrast.

70
"... Tabulam
depictam in qua est Pietas, id est, Deipara in gremio tenens
mortuum filium" (Act. SS. t. i. Junii, p. 489, ad ann. 1421, in Vit. S. Rosselnire).
71
The silver image of Our Ladye of Pity given to the Cathedral of Aberdeen in
1499, is described, in the Visitation of the Jewels in that year, as imago dive Virginis
Marie de Pietate inscripta cum ymagine filii sui crucifixi, crucifixus being here used to
denote the dead Body of our Lord after the crucifixion, as in the Response of the first
lesson in the Office of Easter Sunday scio enim quia crucifixum quaritis not in
the crucifixion. The Visitation of 1496, which enumerates two jocalia, one cum
ymagine crucifixi et pietatis, the other ymago crucifixi cum ymagine pietatis this
latterone appearing in the Visitation of 1464 as ymago pietatis only includes a Pax-
brede of silver gilt, cum ymaginibus crucifixi, beate virginis et Sanctijohannis. Here
crucifixus refers to the actual crucifixion, and consequently our Ladye is described as
Beata Virgo and not de Pietate.
72 "On
appelle N. Dame de Pitie la representation de la Vierge tenant son fils

mort sur ses genoux

"

(Furretiere, Diet, universelle. La Haye,

1690, sub voc. Pitie).
73
Political, Religious, and Love Songs. Early English Text Society, vol. xv.
1866, pp. 149, 150, lines 2528, 5764.
240 Iconography.

Of all women that ever were bore,

That bare children, abide and see
How my Son lieth me before,
Upon my skirt, taken from the tree.
Your children ye dance upon your knee,
With laughing, kissing, and merry cheer.
Behold my child, behold well me,
For now lieth dead my dear Son dear.
Thou hast thi sone ful whole and sounde,
And mine ded upon my kne
is ;

Thi child is lose, and myn is bounde ;

Thi child is lyf, and myn ded is He.

Whi was this, doghter, but for the ?
For my Childe trespast never here ;

Me think ye be holden to wepe with me,

For now lies ded my dere Sone dere. 74

Thus in the inventory taken in 1468 of the goods and chat

tels of Elizabeth, widow of William Sywardby of Sywardby,
Esquire, which were not included in her will, is j imago Bcatc
]\Iaric Virginis lamcntabilis ^ And at Peterborough the altar
of Our Ladye of Pity was called that of our Ladye s Lamenta
76
tion. At Hull, Our Ladye of Pity was called the Mother of
77
Pity.
No possible doubt can, therefore, exist as to the represen
tation of our Ladye of Pity. From the great mass of evidence
on the subject which I have collected, I do not hesitate to say
that the image of Our Ladye of Pity was, not only the most
popular and homely in England, but that there tvas scarcely one
church in our Ladyes Dower in which an image of Our Ladye of
Pity was not to be found. Three old English images of Our
Ladye of Pity yet exist. One occupies one of the sedilia in
Battlefield Church, Shropshire ; 78 the other, a magnificent image
in alabaster, two feet six inches in height, was recently found
buried under the pavement in Breadsall Church, near Derby ;

the third is over the porch of Glentham Church, in Lincolnshire,

and below is a shield with the armorial bearings of the Tournays,
the former lords of Caenby.

74
Chester Plays. Edit. Wright, vol. ii.
p. 204.
75
Test. Ebor. vol. iii.
p. 1 66.
76
S. p. 127.
77
S. P 55-
.

78
Archaologia, vol. xiv, pi. xlviii. fig. I, p. 272.
 Our Ladye of Pity. 241

One proof of the ubiquity of the image of Our Ladye of

Pity in England is supplied by the Sarum Prymer of 1534.
Prefixed to the prayer, Obsccro te Domina Sancta Maria, which
was commonly shown elsewhere, the Obsessio
called, as I have
or Besieging of our Ladye, is the following rubric :

To all them that be in the state of grace that dayly say

"

deuoutly this prayer before our blessed ladye of pitie, she wyll
she we them her blessyd vysage and warne them the daye and
the houre of dethe, and in theyr laste ende the angelles of god
shall yelde theyr sovvles to heuen, and he (they) shall obteyne
v. hondred yers and soo many lentes of pardon graunted by
79
v.holy fathers popes of Rome."
Our Ladye of Mercy is of a different type, and usually
represented standing with her mantle extended, and covering
many of her clients who arc on their knees around her. At
Verviers in Belgium there is a celebrated image of our Ladye
venerated under the title of Our Ladye of Mercy. She is
standing by our Lord, Who
on a bench, and is placing a
is

sceptre in His hand. As

have found no mention of Our
I

Ladye of Mercy in England, it is needless to say more on the

subject.
A
representation of our Lord seated, or standing, in the
sepulchre, as He was visibly seen by St. Gregory, is called the
Pietas Sancti Gregorii^ Mary the Miserable, who is buried in
the chapel Our Ladye of Woluwe-Saint- Lambert, near
of
Brussels, Maria Dolorosa^ and must not be con
is called
founded with our Ladye, Mater Dolorosa.
At Telgetana an image of Our Ladye of Pity is venerated
under the title of Consolatrix afflictorum^
Our Ladye seated alone at the foot of the Cross, is called
our Ladye at the foot of the Cross alpitdelacruz and not

79
Sir William Western distinguished himself at Rhodes, and at the departure of
the Order from their island home, was appointed to the command of the great ship,
commonly called the "Carrack of Rhodes." His flag bore the image of our Ladye
with her dead Son in her arms, and the legend AFFLICTIS TV SPES VNICA :

REBVS (Bosio, Istoria della Sacra Religione et Illma. Militia di San Giovanni Gicro-
solimitano. Napoli, 1684, t. iii.
pp. 5, 9).
80
Cf. Sarum Missal, 1555, f. i.
81 L? Innocence Opprimce. ad diem
Bruxelles, 1872, passim ; also Act. SS,
1 8 Junii.
b2
In an old engraving penes me.
242 Iconography.

Our Ladye of Pitye. Sometimes our Ladye represented as

is

standing alone, in an attitude of grief, or bearing the Crown

of Thorns. Thus figured she is called Nnestra Sefiora de la
Soledad.

7. OUR LADYE OF GRACE.

Ave gratia plena,

Under this title, many images Ladye were venerated

of our
in England, as at Beeston, Cambridge, Heigham Potter,
Ipswich, Northampton, St. Andrew s in Norwich, Quarrywell,
83
Southampton, GreatBerkhampstead, and elsewhere. In
St. Paul s Cathedral, London, there was an image of Our
Ladye the Pillar," in the nave, commonly known as Our
"at

84
Ladye of Grace. The only clue to the type, under which
our Ladye may possibly have been thus represented, is at
Perth, where one of the five altars dedicated to her is called
that of the Visitation, or Our Ladye of Grace. 85
At Tamworth
a barn and a croft were left for the perpetual maintenance of
86
a priest to celebrate the Mass of Our Ladye of Grace. In

1478 a Gild of English merchants trading in Ireland was

established in the chapel
"

Del Marie du Grace," at the bridge

87
end, in Dublin.
The beautiful image of Our Ladye of Graces, near the
Tower of London, took its name, in all probability, from the
abbey founded by Edward the Third in the year 1350, under
the title of B. Maria de Graciis^ which might also be construed
89
as Our Ladye of Thanks.
It is most probable that these images of Our Ladye of

Grace were so named on account of the favours obtained at

83
S. sub nomm.
84
S. pp. 6870.
85
S. p. 303.

History and Antiquity of the Collegiate Church of Tamworth,

86 co. Stafford.
By C. Ferrers R. Palmer, O.P. Tamworth, 1871, p. 39.
87 Gilbert.
History of Dublin, vol. i.
p. 324.
88
S. pp. 91, 92.
89 The Dominican Priory at Youghal, founded A.D. 1268 was called that
1271,
of St. Marye of Thanks (Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum. Edit. 1873, vol. ii.

p. 150). The version of the Hail Marye in Kentish dialect the Ayenbite of in

Inwyt, A.D. 1340, begins, Hayl Marie of thonke uol, Ihord by mid the, &c. (Early
English Text Society, vol. xxiii. p. 262).
 Oiir Ladye of Peace. 243

these sanctuaries, rather than because they were of any fixed

type. I incline the more to this opinion since the picture of

our Ladye of the St. Luke type presented by Fourey de Bruille,

A.D. 1450, to the collegiatechurch dedicated in her honour in
Cambrai, is variously called Notre Dame anx Neiges, Saintc
Marie Majenrc, Notre Dame de Saint Luc, and Notre Dame des
Graces Formerly in Constantinople there were fifty-nine
churches dedicated in honour of our Ladye, each of which had
a distinguishing name one was called
;
that of Our Ladye
1
full of Grace (xsxapirupsvrj)

A representation of the Visitation was sometimes called the

92
Magnificat and this explains what is to be understood by
;

the "Story of the Magnificat" which was depicted in the window

of the church of the Blackfriars at Norwich. John Baret of
St. Edmund s Bury "bequeathed x marks to the peyntyng
rerdoos and table at Seynt Marye avter of the Story of the
93
Magnificat.

8. OUR LADYE OF PEACE.

Quasi oliva speciosa in campis.

At Winfarthing, Norfolk, there was an image of Our Ladye

of Peace. 94 This is the only instance I know in England of
our Ladye being venerated under this title. Our Ladye of
Peace usually holds an olive-branch in her hand, or, occasionally,
a piece of fruit, signifying thereby that she was the New Eve
who produced the Fruit Which has given peace to the world. 95
The image of Our Ladye
of Peace in the Church of St. Michael,
at Antwerp, represents her standing, with her Divine Son, Who
is holding a crown over her head, in her arms, and a sceptre in

her right hand. 96 At Brussels, in the Church of St. Nicholas,

Our Ladye of Peace holds an olive-branch in her right hand. 07

90
Speelmans, Belgium Mariamim. Tournai, 1859, p. 178.
91
Martyrologe Univcrsel. Paris, 1709, p. 838.
92
Pascal, Institutions de r Art Chretien. Paris, 1856, vol. i.
p. 232.
83
S. p. 135.
94
S. p. 249.
95
Cf. Le Saint Pelerinage a N. Dame de Paix a Ennetieres-en- Wappes. Par le
R. P. Possoz, de la Comp. de Jesus. Tournai, 1859, p. 7.
96 In an old
engraving penes me.
97
Jd.
244 Iconography.

Thus, whilst the Blessed Virgin may be invoked anywhere as

Our Ladye of Peace, she cannot be represented under that type
except with the appropriate symbol of peace. In a modern and
highly valued picture of Our Ladyc of Peace, she holds both the
sceptre and a branch of olive in her right hand, and our Lord
holds a globe and an olive-branch in His left, His right being
raised in the attitude of blessing. But there is only one step
from the sublime to the ridiculous, and this painting is a fair
instance of the carelessness of a modern artist. Our Ladye is
represented as standing on a small globe, in a boat which is
one-fifth shorter than her figure, and deep in the water. The
waves rough, and one is breaking over the stern.
are It

is surely an extravagance of folly to depict our Ladye as

balancing herself, like an acrobat, on a globe loose in a boat, in

a rough sea ! Such like absurdities are not uncommon in

modern French art. The French say, in justification, that

il fant des emotions. Heaven save England from these
leur

emotion-producing frivolities, not to use a stronger expression.

9. BEAUTY OF ENGLISH IMAGES OF OUR LADYE.

Tota pnlchra es, ct macula non est in te.

The English images and Ladye were pre

pictures of our
eminently conspicuous Our old artists
for their great beauty.
and sculptors bore in mind that Christ our Lord was spcciosns
forma prce filiis homihumf* and that His Virgin Mother was
fair
"all TOTA pnlchra the beloved of God, and in whom
there was no stain," 99 consequently they endeavoured to repre
100
sent her as lovely and beautiful as it was in their power to do ;

and their handiwork yet excites an admiration which modern

art cannot call forth.
Much has been written about the celebrated text, Nigra sum
scd formosa- which forms one of the antiphons in the Vespers
03
Psalm xliv. 3.
99
Cant. iv. 7.
100 Lord and His Yirgin Mother
Dante alludes to the resemblance between our

Riguarda ormai nella faccia ch a Cristo

Piu s assomiglia.
301
See a paper in the Month, vol. xxix. p. 455, by Lord Arundell of Wardour.
 BeaiUy of English Images of our Ladye. 245

of our Ladye. Many believe that sundry black images of our

Ladye owe their origin to these words and there exist several ;

images of our Ladye called Vierges noircs, as La Vierge noire

at Dijon, at Beaune, and in the Cathedral of Puy-en-Velay 102 but ;

the more probable explanation is that their colour is more com

monly due to their antiquity. Tursellino describes the venerable
statue of Our Ladye of Loreto as a cedar image of our Blessed
Ladye standing. Her face is varnished with amber, giuing a
"

silver glasse \sic\ but darkened with the smoke of the lights,

yet this very darkening (a token of antiquity and religion) doth

103
exceedingly increase the majesty of her virginall countenance."
Moreover, the Ethiopians and Abyssinians, and other dark
nations, represent our Blessed Ladye of the colour of the nation,
so to say, and like themselves, whilst in centra-distinction they
104
paint the hell-devil white. I have a small painting on vellum

of our Ladye of the St.Luke type, from Magdala, which repre

sents her as dark. The traditional description of our Ladye
recorded by St. Epiphanius, and quoted by Blessed Canisius,
says Her complexion resembled the colour of ripe wheat
:
"

her hair was golden, her eyes bright with light coloured pupils
of an olive hue. She had dark and gently curved eyebrows. 105
Nigra sum sed formosa, so far as it is applicable to our
Ladye, must be taken in a mystical sense, as Cornelius a Lapide
106
explains.
The artists of the ages of faith did not use models for sacred
107
subjects : that was a practice of pagan origin, and revived at
the fall of Christian art a period commonly misnamed the
Renaissance. Christian artists painted from inspiration. Thus
in the curious document purporting to be issued by the three
Bishops in the year 1291, Prince Edward was ordered in his

10Z
De Caumont, Abccedaire d 1

Archeologie. Caen, 1859, p. 283.

jpa
History of our Blessed Ladye of Loreto. Douay, 1608, pp. 15, 16.
104
Pascal, Institutions de T art Chrelienne, vol. i.
p. 252.
105
De B. Maria Virgine. Ingolstaclii, 1577, lib. i. cap. xiii. p. 95.
106
Commentaria in S. Script. Paris, 1 860, t. vii. pp. 495, 496.
307
Agnes Strickland says, is well known that the
"It
portraits of the lovely
young Philippa (of Hainault) and her princely boy (Edward the Black Prince) formed
the favourite models for the [Blessed] Virgin and Child at that era (Lives of the
"

Queens of England. Philippa of Hainault, 255) ; but unsupported as this

p.
statement is by any authority or references, it is of no Barnes, however,
weight.
says that the Queen suckled all her children, like Blanche of Castile, the mother of
St. Louis of France (Life of EdwanI the Third. Cambridge, 1688, p. 44).
246 Iconography.

dream the most cunning limner in the whole world,

to go to
"

Marlibrun the Jew, of Billingsgate, who would paint the picture

of our Ladye and her Divine Son by Divine inspiration." 108
The "

Stacions of Rome" in the Vernon MS. A.D. 1370, says

that in the portrait of our Ladye by St. Luke, her face was filled

in by angel hands.
An ymage sikerly,
Wonder feir, of vre ladi.
Seint Luik, while he lyuede in londe,
Wolde haue peynted hit with his honde.
And whon he hedde ordeyned so,
Alle colours that schulde ther to,
He fond an ymage, al a-pert,
Non such ther was, middelert,
Mad with angel hand, and not with his,
As men in Rome witnesseth this.
100

"

pious painter of Catholic days

"

Southey s is represented

on the wall of the Ladye Chapel at Winchester as painting our

110
Ladye from inspiration.
The several images of our Ladye at Evesham were right
"

well peynted and feyre arayed wyth golde and diuers other
colours, the whyche schewyed to the people that behylde hym
111
grete deuocyon. Professor Cockerell, R.A., describes the
group on the south side of the choir of Angels, in Lincoln
Cathedral, which represents our Ladye with her Divine Son,
in terms of the highest admiration, and bears witness to the
112
religious spirit which had inspired this work. One of the
images at St. Alban s, carved by the celebrated sculptor Master
Walter of Colchester, in the beginning of the thirteenth century,
was known as Our Ladye the Beautiful Sancta Maria
Pu/c/ira. 113 Dr. Wilhelm Liibke speaks of "

the Grand Madonna

"

statue at the
Chapter House, York, sayingportal of the :

"

She
holding her Child towards the spectator with motherly
is

pride, and in doing so her slender figure is strongly curved, and

the drapery with its broad folds is executed with masterly
The
power." date of this statue is c. 1300. "The splendid
Madonna and Child at the main portal of Wells Cathedral, is
a work of grand beauty, nobly conceived, and with free and

103 10
S. pp. 79, 80. Early English Text Society, 1867, pp. 16, 17.
110 11] 113
S. p. 241. S. p. 37. S. p. 64.
113
S. pp. 131, 133.
 Beauty of English Images of our Ladye. 247

flowing And Leo de Rosmital, in 1465 1467, was

drapery."
114

profoundly struck by the beauty of the English images. At "

Reading, in the abbey church," says he, there is an image of

"

the Mother of God so exceedingly elegant that, in my opinion,

I have never beheld, nor shall see one to be compared to it,
even were I to go to the extreme ends of the earth. Nothing
more beautiful nor lovely could be executed He next halted !
"

at Andover, where he saw most beautiful statue of the "a

Blessed Virgin alabaster," and at Salisbury

sculptured in "he

had never beheld more elegant images;" those of our Ladye

with her Divine Son, and the Resurrection of our Lord,
115
appeared to him "not as handiwork, but alive.
The silver image of Our Ladye of Pity at Aberdeen, is

described in the Visitation of 1516, as Pulchra imago

The beauty of the English illuminations of our Ladye is

equally remarkable ;
and Dr. Waagen draws particular attention
to three MSS. in the British Museum. One is a Psalter of the
half of the eleventh century, with an illumination of our
first
117
Ladye enthroned the second is the celebrated autograph
;

history of Matthew Paris, which Dr. Waagen mentions "chiefly

in order to call attention to the picture of the [Blessed] Virgin,
which is one of the best miniatures of the thirteenth century
known to me, and a striking proof of the excellence which the
art had attained at that time." 118 The third are the miniatures
lla
in an English religious poem A.D. 1420 1430.
What then was the secret of this great beauty in the early
pictures and images of our Blessed Ladye ? Simply this :

Religious art was under the direct influence and control of the
Church and ;
the artists undertook their work in a proper
It is good, and very advantageous to paint
"

religious spirit.
holy and venerable images," says the Fourth Council of
114
History of Sculpture from the earliest ages to the present time. London, 1872,
vol. ii.
p. 98. Of this image Drake says, "that it bears a mark of those times which
made even stone statues feel their malice" (Eboracum. London, 1736, p. 476).
115
Iter Leonis de Rosmital, A.t>.
1465 1467, Bibliothek des Literarischcn
Vereins in Stuttgart ,
vol. vii. pp. 44, 46. 1844.
110
Registrum Episcopatiis Aberdonensis, vol. ii.
p. 173. Spalding Club.
117
Harl. MS. 603.
118
Royal MS. 14, ch. vii.
1:9 Cott. MS. Faustina, B. vi. ; Treasures of Art in Great Britain. By Dr.
Waagen. London, 1854, vol. i.
pp. 145, 158, 183. Letter vi. of vol. i. is well
worth reading.
248 Iconography.

Constantinople, A.D. 869; "but it is neither

good, nor by any
means advantageous, that they should be executed by unworthy
men," that is, by any under the anathema of the Church.
Hence the Council defines that whoever, thus censured, shall, "

after this definition,

attempt to paint holy images in churches,
shall, if be liable to degradation from his rank, and,
a cleric,
if a layman, he shall be
separated and deprived of the com
munion of the sacred mysteries. 120 This Cardinal Frederic
Borromeo inculcated at a later period, saying Pictatem pictori :

inprimis csse neccssariam.

Angelico, Vassari says Of Beato :

Che fa cose di He would

Cristo, con Cristo
deve scmpre starch
paint his Christs on his knees. It was not his ambition to
excel in the science of the nude and on rare occasions when ;

he had to paint the human body, faults in

anatomy may be
found. He never used models, 122 and would receive Holy
Communion before venturing to depict the lovely
majesty of
our Ladye. 122 And Sassoferrato, in later did the same. 124
times,
Catholic artists were not men who would
paint a Leda or
a Venus one day, and a picture of our the Ladye day after,
from the same model. All the pictures of our
Ladye by
Andrea del Sarto have the features of his handsome but
vulgar
wife those of Rubens and Albano the portraits of their wives
;
;

those of Allori andVan Dyck are portraits of their mistresses,

after the example of Praxiteles. 125 There exists a fresco-
itis needless to
say more which represents Giulia Farnese as
our Ladye, and Alexander the Sixth
kneeling at her feet
But the greatest abomination of this description was executed
in France. There existed in the Church of St.
Stephen at
Caen, a Holy Family. Our Ladye and St. Joseph were portraits
of Gabrielle d Estrecs and Henri the
Fourth, and their bastard son,
the Due de Vendome, represented our Lord 12G Other later im- !

120
Act. x. Can. vii. Labbe, t. viii. coll. Edit, cit
;
1130, 1131.
121
In Vita.
!3
Vie de Fra Angelico di Fiesolc. Par E. Cartier. Paris, 1857, p. 101.
3
^
May Papers. By Edvv. Ignatius Purbrick, SJ. London, 1874, p. 57.
124
Sunima Aurea, t. ii. col. 965, note.
!j
Praxiteles autcm, nt declarat Possidipus in libra de Cnido, Cnidiic Vcitcris
ejjfin^ns simulacrum Cratimc, quam amabat, formain in cd
expressit, ut habcrent
miseri tinde amicam Praxitelis adorarent
(Clement Alexandr. Opp. Lut. Parisior,
I 64 I
P- 35)-
>
Cum floreret autcm Phryne meretrix Thespiaca, pictores omncs Veneris
imagines ad Phrynes pulchritudinem imitalione referebant (Ibid.}.
!6
Pascal, ubi sup. p. 259. Happily this picture is now destroyed.
 Beazity of English Images of our Ladye. 249
need not be mentioned. 127 Such were the
pieties unchristianizing
results of the Renaissance. From the time of Raffaele, I know
of no picture or statue of our
Ladye which inspires devotion
like those of the ages of faith and although, of late years,
;

Christian art has made

great progress in the right direction,
much is yet to be desired. Chateaubriand says of himself that
Utic Madojie coiffce d it/i couronne gotliiquc, vetne il nne robe de
sole blene,
garnic d une frange d argent m inspire plus de devotion
qn une Vierge de Raffael Evidently when he wrote these
lines he had in his mind some venerated
image of our Ladye
carved and painted in the ages of faith. For I do my part,
not see how Raffaele s
inspire devotion to any
pictures can
excepting to those who know nothing of his history. There is
a print of him which represents him in the act of
sketching
the Madonna delta Seggiola ; but so far from trusting to inspi
ration, the scene is laid in the courtyard of an osteria. The
model, a handsome contadina with her child, is seated at an
open window, and Raffaele is painting her likeness on the end
of an empty wine cask tilted Rio frankly allows that
up!
several of the "Madonnas" of Raffaele were not
painted as
129
objects of devotion.
Artists considered those as happy days which were occupied
in painting our Blessed as Guido of Siena has recorded
Ladye ;

at the foot of his celebrated

picture executed in 1221 : ME
GHVIDO DE SENIS DIEBVS DEPINXIT AMENIS; and then, as
if
imploring the mercy of his Redeemer, for the sake of His
Virgin Mother, he adds: QVEM XPS LENIS NVLLIS VELIT
ANGERE PENIS. In a word, the Christian artists and
sculptors
of the ages of faith, considering that the execution of an
image
or picture could be properly worked out
only by innocentcs
127
Pascal, lib i sup. p. 219.
128
Memoires d Outre Tombe. Paris, 1860, vol. i.
p. 47.
29
On Raffaele s return from Urbino to Florence, "ce qu il faisait
pour Ics
Florentins avail plutot pour but de flatter leur
amour-propre par la possession d un
tresor admire d avance, on de leur
procurer des jouissances esthetiques oil la piele
proprement dit entrait pour peu de chose. C etait encore le culte du beau, mais ce
n etait plus cet ideal religieux avail exalte les qui en les
imaginations epurant ames,
el je crois que la Vierge a l\cillet, la Vierge an Huge du Musee du Louvre, la Vierge
du Palais Nicolini, et la Vierge
du Palais Colonna executees toules vers celte meme
epoque peuvent le gitimement etre soupc,onnees de n avoir jamais ele Irailees comme
des images de devotion "

(Michel-Ange el Raphael. Par A. F. Rio. Paris, 1867,

pp. 124, 125).
250 Iconography.

manibus et mundo cordc, endeavoured to render themselves

worthy of undertaking their pious labour of love, by being
shriven and houseled, and by prayer. What Montalembert
says of the early German artists is eminently applicable to our
old English painters and sculptors. Deja la popularity de cet
art naissant etait si grande que I on ne cJierchait plus I ideal
de la beaute dans la nature dechue, mats bien dans ces types
mysterieux et profonds, dont d humbles artistes avaient puise le
secret au sein de leurs comtemplations rcligieuses It is from
this source alone that Catholic art can raise itself to the
131
perfection of the ages of faith.

10. THE ROBING OF STATUES OF OUR BLESSED LADYE.

Mrs. Jameson ascribes this practice to the "influence of
"

Jesuitism on This
" "

art Order," says she,

!
kept alive that
devotion for the Madonna, which their great founder Loyola
"

as she calls St. Ignatius, more Scotico had so ardently pro "

fessed when he chose for

thoughts, nothe Lady of his
princess, no duchess, but one and more peerless. far greater
The learning of the Jesuits supplied some themes not hitherto
in use, principally of a fanciful and allegorical kind, and never
had the meek Marye been so decked out with earthly orna
ment as in their church pictures. If the sanctification of
simplicity, gentleness, maternal love, and heroic fortitude were
calculated to elevate the popular mind, the sanctification of
mere and ornament, embroidered robes and jewelled
glitter
crowns, must have tended to degrade it. It is surely an

unworthy and foolish excuse that, in thus desecrating with

the vainest and most vulgar finery the beautiful ideal of the
[Blessed] Virgin, an appeal was made to the awe and admi
ration of vulgar and ignorant minds, for this is precisely what,
in all religious imagery, should be avoided. As, however, this
sacrilegious millinery does not come within the province of fine
132
arts, I may pass it over here."

lao
Vie de S. Elizabeth, pref.
131
Cf. Carove, quoted by Digby, Broad Stone of Honour, vol. iv. ; Orlandus,
pp. 341 343. Edit. London, 1876.
132
Legends of the Madonna, Introd. pp. xxxvii. xxxviii. Edit, cit.
 The Robing of Statues of oiir Blessed Lady. 251

Carove is more to the point.

"

In observing," says he,

"

the
splendid robes with which the artist adorns holy persons, we
should remember the intention which prompted his hand, that
as the poor as well as the rich, in these times, often and gladly
gave their best arid most beautiful robes to ornament altars
and holy images, the painter, with similar piety, expended his
utmost skill in worthily adorning those saints whom he painted
and honoured with religious honour ; by means of the wide and
flowing drapery, it was the intention, not only to clothe the
body, but also to keep it completely out of the view and thought
of the observer, and to confine the attention solely to the
133
spiritual countenances of the heavenly."
In the year 833, Uuitlaf, King of Mercia, gave his coro
nation mantle to Croyland to be made into a chasuble or a
134
cope and Harold the First (Harefoot) followed his example.
;

Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Norman, gave her

tunic and mantle to the Abbey of the Holy Trinity for the
same object, and one of her girdles of gold for the suspending
of the lamp before the altar. 135
It may be a question whether, in earlier days, the custom
of robing statues took any other form than that of attaching
a mantle to the shoulders. It will be remembered by those who
have visited the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, that on festal

days the bronze seated statue of St. Peter, which was cast in
the time of St. Leo the Great from the bronze of Jupiter
Capitolinus, is arrayed in a cope and tiara. The antiquity of
this have not ascertained. At Glastonbury, the image
custom I

of our Ladye, of which William of Malmesbury speaks, had a

veil on its head, which was not consumed by the fire, 136 yet
it will be observed that he makes no allusion to robes.

The many instances of "coats" for our Ladye and her

Divine Son, which are mentioned in the Series, prove how
universal was the custom of robing images of our Ladye in

England. At Caversham the image of our Ladye had false

hair. 137

133
Quoted by Digby, Broadstone of Honour, vol. iv. ; Orlandus, pp. 342, 343.
134
Mon. Angl. t. ii. p. 90.
135
Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, vol. i.
p. 92. London, 1851.
136
S. p. 48.
"?
"Cootes, cappe, and/w<?"
(S, p. n).
252 Iconography.

It should be borne in mind that from the eighth century

it was a custom to cover venerated images made of wood with
a sheathing of gold or silver plates, and to adorn them with
gems, ornaments, and precious stones. The treasury of Conques
contains a magnificent seated image of Sainte Foi of this
description, of the ninth century. The body is of wood sheathed
with gold, the head is of gold alone, repoitssec. Affixed to it
are engraved and plain gems, and many interesting pieces of

jewelry of various dates. Through the courtesy of M. Pous-

sielgue I was able to examine this statue not long ago.

II. COLOURING OF STATUES.

Statues of our Ladye, not sheathed with gold and silver

or of precious metals, were invariably coloured and gilt.
made
This was an early custom in England, as is proved at Glaston-
bury and Thetford. Those at Evcsham are described in 1196
as right well peyntcd and feyre arayed wyth golde and divers
"

other colours." The Series mentions many bequests for the

object of painting various images of our Ladye. Thomas
Barsham, called Thomas of Yarmouth, acquired considerable

reputation during the early part of the fifteenth century as a

painter and imagicr, or maker of images to him, probably, are
;

due many interesting specimens of mediaeval art which still

138
remain on the altar screens of some of the Norfolk churches.
As all the images in England, excepting those made of gold
or silver, or sheathed with precious metals, were painted, it

may have been that it was sought to give them a more festal
character by robing them in rich garments of textile fabric,
which were so often bequeated in wills. Moreover, the robing
of images afforded the means of displaying to advantage the
numerous offerings and bequests of girdles, brooches, rings,
pairs of beads, and the like. At Melford, according to the
Inventory of 1529, three rings were fastened to the apron of
our Ladye. There is no evidence that the English statues of
338
A curious list of prices paid to workmen for the painting of images in
Westminster Abbey from the 6th to the 26th of Edward III. is given in the
History of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England, By G. Ayliffe Poole, M.A.
p. 284.
 Veils. 253

our Blessed Ladye were arrayed in those stiff pyramidal robes

which disfigure her images at Loreto, Einsiedlen, in Belgium, 139
and elsewhere.
Now, considering that the Society of Jesus was instituted
only in the year 1554, it is impossible to understand how
"

Mrs. Jameson could assign to "Jesuit influence the origin of a

custom which had already existed for many centuries. Random
assertions, such as these, deprive works, otherwise meritorious,
of much of their value and authority.
A
decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, dated April
u, 1840, forbids different mantles for summer and winter wear
to be placed on images of the saints. 140

12. VEILS.

The Anglo-Saxons represented our Ladye with the Byzan

tine mantle-veil, the use of which disappears shortly after the
Norman invasion ;
the mantle is worn on the shoulders, and a
kerchief added, reaching to the mantle, or falling slightly
is

over it. The kerchief or little veil was no doubt, as I have

already observed, the earliest form of applying textile fabrics
to images of our Ladye, as at Glastonbury, where it was
used in the thirteenth century. In the inventory of the
jewels and other objects belonging to Our Ladye of Miracles,
at St. Omer s, taken in the year 1383, are mentioned xxii
141
galmata, gallice kevvrekiefs pro imagine Beatc Marie ; yet
no robes for the image of our Ladye appear in the inventories
until nearly a century later.
There are many details about the images and pictures which
represent our Ladye with flowing hair and with and without
the veil, into which it is impossible here to enter. I am inclined

to believe that there was no general rubric on the subject, and

that artists were influenced in some degree by the customs of
their country ;
that is, by the manner in which maidens wore
139
Cf. Etudes sur les types de la Sainte Vierge a I Jpoqiie Romano- Byzantine.
Par 1 Abbe Hyacinthe de Bruyn, vicaire aux Minimes (Bruxelles), President du
Comite archeologique de Brabant. Brux. 1870, p. 28.
140
Manuel d Archt ologie pratique. Par 1 Abbe Th. Pierret. Paris, 1864^.366.
141
Didron, Annales Archeologiques, vol. xviii. pp. 257 264. These inventories
are of much interest.
254 Iconography.

their hair,and whether they wore the veil or not. Our Ladye
of Pity recently found at Breadsall does not wear the usual
it hangs from her shoulders
great mantle-veil over her head
but the kerchief which falls on it. But in the Assumption in
English art, our Ladye is usually represented as young, with
her hair flowing over her shoulders, and no veil.

13. OUR LADYE S FEET.

It was not until the commencement of the Renaissance, or

fall of Christian art, that our Ladye is represented with bare
feet. They came in and pJiainomerides
with robes collantes,

tunics, and other artistic

extravagances, which are utterly to
be condemned. 142 In the frescoes of the Catacombs, in Anglo-
Saxon illuminations, 143 and the early English and Italian schools
of painting and sculpture, Our Ladye is invariably represented
with shoes on her feet at least with her feet covered whilst
our Lord usually has bare feet, and occasionally sandals. I
know of only one solitary exception. In the very remarkable
illumination in the Book of Kells, A.D. 700, our Ladye is

depicted with bare feet, probably in accordance with the

national custom in Ireland, otherwise it seems impossible to
144
explain this exception to the general rule.
Sometimes the feet of images of our Ladye were fitted with
silver shoes. The Visitation of the treasury of the Cathedral
at Aberdeen, March i, 1496, enumerates duo sotularcs nostre
domine cum duobus berillis At Limerick, in the 3Oth of

Henry the Eighth, the Commissioners did take off the image
"

of our Ladye showes of silver, weighing six unces with divers

146
stones, and fifteene buthons of silver valued at 3^. sterling." <$d.

142
Cf. Pacheco, quoted by Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, pp. ii. lii.

Edit. 1872.
143
See the Benedictionale of St. Jithelwald, Archceologia, vol. xxiv.
it may be objected to me that the seal of Kelso (S. p. 299) as given in
144 Lest
Gordon s Scottish Monasticon (Glasgow, 1868, p. 441), represents our Ladye with
bare feet, I ought to say that the bare feet are an invention of the engraver s, and
that the seal itself represents her with shoes (See Laing, Catalogue of Scottish Seals,

p. 189, n. 1057).
145
legist. Episcopates Aberdon. vol. ii. p. 169. Spalding Club, 1845.
146
S. p. 308.
 The Crowning of Statiies of our Blessed Lady. 255

And in the inventory of York Minster taken 1420, are men

tioned iiplates de argento pro pedibus ymaginis Beate Marie
if I may use this word
"

These were probably frontals "

for
our Ladye s feet, and intended to represent the upper parts of
the shoes.

14. THE CROWNING OF STATUES OF OUR BLESSED LADYE.

Vem, dilecta mea, vent, coronaberis.

Mrs. Jameson attributes the origin of "jewelled crowns" on

the head of our Ladye to the influence of Jesuitism The !

following evidence will prove what her statement is worth.

Anastasius, Librarian of the Church, proves that the practice
of crowning images of our Blessed Ladye was observed in Rome
in the first half of the eighth century. He relates that Pope
Gregory the Third, A.D. 731 741, had built a chapel in honour
of our Ladye, with an altar and an image, which is described
as a statue of the Holy Mother of God, having a golden crown,
set with precious stones, and a necklace of gold, with pendant
148
gems and ear-rings set with six hyacinths.
In the Benedictionale of St. ^Ethelwald, Bishop of Winchester,
A.D. 948 963, one of the illuminations represents the death of
our Ladye. She is lying on her couch, and a hand, holding
149
a crown, is issuing from a cloud. The anecdote of Cnut, who
placed his crown on the head of the great image of our Lord
150
crucified, at Winchester, will be remembered. In a MS. in
151
the British Museum, assigned to the years 1012 IO2O, there is
a miniature of our Blessed Ladye seated, with God the Father
and her Divine Son, the Holy Ghost is hovering over her : she
is crowned.
Within two centuries the practice of representing images of
our Blessed Ladye, with her Divine Son, crowned, had become
almost universal in England. Frequently crowns of gold and
silver were placed upon her images. The great image of Our

147 York Fabric Rolls, Surtees Society, 1859.

p. 296.
148
Hist, de Vitis Rom. Pontificum, t. ii. col. 1025. Patrol. Lot. Edit. Migne.
149
Archaologia, vol. xxiv. plate xxxi. p. 106.
150
Henry of Huntingdon, Francofiirti, 1 60 1, p. 364.
151
Cott. MS Titus, D. xxvii.
256 Iconography.

Ladye of Lincoln, which was an early one, and of silver, had a

crown of silver gilt. 152 Isabel, Countess of Warwick, bequeathed
a crown of gold with precious stones, weighing 20 Ibs., to Our
153
Ladye of Caversham. Several crowns for the image of our
Ladye and her Divine Son in the Royal Chapel at Windsor

are enumerated in the inventory of the 8th of Richard the

154
Second. Lambeth Simnel was crowned with the crown of
Our Ladye of St. Maryc s Abbey, Dublin 155 and many other ;

156
instances are given in the Series. The image of our Lady in
the Herbert Chapel at Abergavenny is singularly interesting,
because she is represented with a triple crown, which evidently
is intended to designate her as Queen of the Church Triumphant,
157
the Church Militant, and the Church Suffering.
St. John Chrysostom and other Fathers of the Church often

give to the saints the title of Princes, because, compared with

the faithful in this world, they have, in consequence of the
predilection which God bears them, and the glory which they
enjoy, a vast superiority over them. Our Blessed Ladye is the
Queen of all these Princes of Heaven. It is impossible to refuse

her the of Queen of All Saints, without denying that she

title

surpasses all other saints in merit, in grace, and in influence

with God. Hence it appears that the crowning of images or
Ladye is a public acknowledgment of her
statues of our Blessed

glory and a mysterious representation on earth of the act of

God in elevating her above all the other saints, and of her
coronation in Heaven Veni, dilccta meet, vent, ceronaberis
which is so beautifully expressed an old English poem
in

entitled "A
Song of great sweetness from Christ to His
Daintiest Damme."

VENI CORONABERIS.

Surge mca Sponsa, swete in sijt,

And se thi sone them 3afe souke so scheene ;

Thou schalt abide with thi babe so brijt,

And in my glorie be callide a queene.
Thy mammillis, moder, ful weel y meene,
Y had to my meete that y mi3t not mys ;

Aboue alle creaturis, my moder clene,

Veni, coronaberis.

152
S. p. 63.
J53
S. p. 10.
154
S. p. 247.
iw s.
p 305.
.

156 157
S. pp. 63, 135, 137. S. p. 283.
The Crowning of Statues of our Blessed
Ladye. 257
Come clenner than cristal to my cage ;

Columba mea, y thee calle,

And se thi sone that in seruage
For mannis soule was made a thralle.
In thi palijs so principal
I pleyde
priuyli withoute mys ;

Myn hij cage, moder, haue thou schal ;

Vent, coronaberis.
For macula, moder, was neuere in thee,
Filia Syon, thou art the flour,
Ful sweteli schalt thou sitte bi
me,
And here a crowne with me in tour,
And all my seintis to thin honour
Schal honoure thee, moder, in
my blis,
That blessid bodi that bare me in bowur,
Veni, coronaberis.
Tota pjilchra thou art to my plesynge,
My moder, princes of paradijs,
Of thee a watir ful well gan sprynge
That schal ajen alle my rijtis rise ;

The welle of mercy in thee, moder, lijs

To bring thi blessid bodi to blis ;

And my seintis schulen do thee seruice,

Vent, coronaberis.
Veni electa mea, meekili chosen,
Holi moder and maiden queene,
On sege to sitte semeli bi him an hij
Thi sone and eek thi childe.
Here, moder, with me to dwelle,
With thi swete babe that sittith in blis,
There in ioie and blis that schal neuere mys,
Veni, coronaberis.
Veni electa mea, my moder swete,
Whanne thou had me, babe, be ful stille,
Ful goodli cure lippis than gan
mete,
With bri at braunchis as blosmes on hille.
Fanns distillans, it wente with wille
Oute of oure lippis whanne we dide kis,
Therfore, moder, now ful stille,

Veni, coronaberis.
Veni de libano, thou loueli in launche,
That lappid me loueli with liking song,
Thou schalt abide with a blessid
braunche,
That so semeli of thi bodi sprong.
Egoflos campi, thi flour, was solde,
That on calueri to thee cried y-wys :

Moder, thou woost this is as y wolde ;

Veni, coronaberis.
Palchra nt luna, thou berist the lamme,
As the sunne that schineth clere,
258 Iconography.

Veni in orturn me urn, thou deintiest damme,

To smelle spicis that here
my ben in fere.

My palijs is pijt for thi pleasure,

Ful of bri3t braunchis and blosmes of bliss
Come now, moder, to thi derling dere !

Veni, coronaberis.
Quid est ista so uertuose
That is euere lastyng for hir mekenes ?

Aurora consurgens, graciouse,

So benigne a ladi of such bri3tnes,
This is the colour of kinde clennes
Regina cell that neuere dide mys ;

Thus endith the song of greet sweettnes,

Veni, coronaberis

15. BIRDS.

King Henry the Fourth gave to the Royal Chapel of

Windsor a statue of our Ladye of silver gilt on her right arm ;

she bore her Divine Son, Who is playing with a bird ludentem
cum valucre? Mrs. Jameson, with her Egyptian proclivities,
sees in birds thus represented the symbols of the soul of man.
Iquote her opinion for what it may be worth, merely observing
how unlikely it is that our Lord would be described as "playing
were understood to represent the soul of a
"

with a bird if it

man whom He had redeemed. The emblem of Saint-Cyr

represents our Ladye in a boat, and our Lord "flying" a dove
with a string fastened to its leg, and the end of which He is
100
holding. Barocci painted our Blessed Ladye holding her
Divine Son and St. John the Baptist in her arms. St. John
is rescuing a bird from a cat, which is at our Ladye s feet. This
is La Viergc au chat ; and Pascal cannot decide whether or not
101
the artist had some mystical signification in his mind. I do

not, however, remember to have met with the cat as used to

Christ and our Blessed Ladye. Early English Text Society, vol. xxiv.

1867, p. I.
159 S. p. 247.
160
Ilaignere, Etude stir la ttgende de A Dame de Boulogne,
7
".

p. 32,
161
fnstittttions de TArt Chretien, vol. i.
pp. 249, 250.
 Birds. 259

symbolize the devil. It would, however, not be out of keeping

with the wretched symbolism of the Renaissance. I think it is
said of Cornelius Agrippa, or some other proficient in magic arts,
that his familiar demon used to appear to him under the form
of a black cat.
The seal of Plympton Priory represents our Ladye seated
with her Divine Son on her knee, and holding on her hand a
hawk, belled and hooded.
162
hawk was the symbol of the A
highest Pracipuuiu erat acdpiter primes nobilitatis
nobility.
163
insigne, says Cancellieri ; and one of the distinctions of the
Anglo-Saxon nobles was to appear in public with their hawks
on their wrist. 164 For the benefit of those who are not cunning
in the noble science of Falconry, I may observe that a hawk has
attached to his legs two little leather straps a few inches in
length, to which is fixed a swivel through which the leash is
passed. When taken from their blocks or perches, they are
hooded, and carried on the hand by the two little straps from
which the leash has been removed. Now these little straps are
called jesses. Is the hawk in the Plympton seal intended as a

playful allusion to our Ladye the Virgo, de radice Jesse

?165 The .

Tree of Jesse was a favourite subject for stained glass windows, 166
and tabula and copes in England.
In some of the early seals of the Kings of England a bird
is represented on the
top of the sceptre which they hold and ;

in like manner, some of the early British monastic seals of our

Ladye represent the sceptre which she holds surmounted by a

bird as in the seal of Kelso.
The
great silver-gilt image of our Ladye of Lincoln bore in
her hand a scepter with one flower set with stones and pearls,
"

and one bird on the top thereof." 168

1(12
s. p. 127.
163
Quoted by Oliver, Mon. Diocc. Exon. p. 132.
161
Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons. Paris, 1840, vol. ii.
p. 38,
note 5.
165
Egredidur virga de radice Jesse, &c. (Isaias xi.). The Lady Abbess of
St. Albans, Dame Juliana Berners, in her Processe of Hawkynge, says that
Hawkys have abowte their leggys gesses made of leddyr most commynly.
"

Book
of St. Albans, sig. b. iii. Cf. Proinptorizif/i Parvulorttm, sub. voc. lessys.
166
Cf. Memoirs illustrative of the Art of Glass Painting, By Charles Winston,
M.A. London, 1865, p. 238.
167
Priory of Fine hale, fol. ccccl. Surtccs Society.
168
S. p. 63.
260 Iconography.

l6. OPENING STATUES.

At Durham the image of Our Ladye of Boulton was
"

madde to open with gimmers (i.e. hinges) from her breastes

169
downwards."

These Images ouvrantcs, were in

statues, called in French,
great vogue during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As
their name implies, they were made to open and form a triptych,

containing either relics or carved representations. very A

beautiful example is now in the Louvre at Paris 170 and several
;

others of the year 1480 are mentioned.

17. RELICS IN STATUES.

It is an ancient custom to inclose relics in statues of our
Blessed Ladye and instances are mentioned of such images at
;

171 172
Barking Abbey, Glastonbury, and Thetford. 173 It was also
171
observed aboad. Relics were also placed in the figures of our
Lord crucified, as was done in the Great Rood at St. Edmund s
Bury, A.D. 1 102. 175

1 8. OFFERINGS TO SANCTUARIES OF OUR LADYE.

And the people rejoiced when they promised their offerings willingly,
because they offered them to God with all their heart and David the King ;

rejoiced also with a great joy,

I
Paralip. xxix. 9.

I have merely one or two observations on this point to add

to what appears in the Series.

Only a few votive hearts, which are so common abroad, are

i e Due, Diet, raisonne de Mobilier Francois. Paris, 1868, p. 131.

Migne, Diet. d Orfcvrcrie, col. 1042.
170
In the Inventory of the Duke of
Burgundy, A.n. 1420, n. 4238, is Ung petit ymage dor de Nostre Dame onvrante par
le venire oiiquel est la Trinite dedans, &c. (Ibid. ).
171
Sir A Dialogue concerning Heresies and Matters of Religion.
Thomas More,
Written A.D. 1518, bk. ii. ch. ix. Opp. Edit. cit. p. 192.
172
The image mentioned in S. p. 48 contained relics.
173
S. pp. 148, 149.
174
Viollet le Due, Diet, raisonne de Mobilier Francois, p. 133 ; Callia Christiana.
Paris, 1715, t. xiii. p. 1 02.
175
Batteley, Antiqititales S, Edmundi Burgi. Oxon. 1
745, p. 57.
 Offerings to Sanctuaries of our Ladye. 261

mentioned as offerings to English sanctuaries of our 170

Ladye-
They were symbols that the donors had given their hearts to
our Ladye the Raptrix cordium and, perhaps, in thanksgiving
for some favour received
through her intercession. Thus Chaucer
in a ballad addresses our Ladye :

Mine hart I yeue you Lady in this

entent,
That ye shal holly thereof haue
gouernaunce,
Taking my leaue with hart s obeisaunce,
Salve Regina singing last of all
To be our helpe when we to thee call. 178

The
heart was considered the pars mclior
pro toto corporc.
Isabella, Countess of Gloucester, died A.D. 1239, a ^d was buried
at Beaulieu.
Postrema voce legavit cor comitissa,
Pars melior toto fuit \MC pro
corpore missa. 179

What can be more touching," says a recent writer, than "

to read of a great and good man

bequeathing his heart to the
place or person of his affections?" 180 Our Richard the Lion-
Heart gave his heart to Our Ladye of Rouen, whom he
heartily
loved qnam pracordialitcr dilexerat.- In 1387 John the
First,Count of Auvergne and Boulogne, left his heart to Our
182
Ladye of Boulogne; and Antony Widvile, Earl
Rivers,
bequeathed his to Our Ladye of Pue. 183 Truely might these
good men exclaim in the words of St. Bonaventure O Domina :

qua rapis corda dulcedine ! Nonne cor mcum, Domina,

On
two occasions Sir Robert Wingfield, who was Ambassador
at theCourt of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, asked leave of
absence of his sovereign that he might offer his which he beard,

176
A silver votive heart is mentioned at Aberdeen. Cf. Archaologia
Cantiana,
vol. ix. p. Ixii. for a votive heart of wax.
77
St.Bonaventure, Opuc. t. ii. p. 235. Edit. cit.
8
^
Works. London, 1602, fol. 330.
1/9
Man. Ang. vol. ii.
p. 55.
30
Enshrined Hearts of Warriors and Illustrious People.
By Emily Sophia
Hartshorne. London, 1861, p. ?. proeme
181
S. p. 83.
2
Dame de Boulogne.
]

Haignere, Nostre Edit. cit. p. 99.

183
Opusc. Edit.
m S. pp. 128,
235.
cit. t. ii.
p. 240.

*
r
262 Iconography.

had already vowed of Walsingham. 185 I have

to Our Ladye
not space to enter into details on the subject of beards, which
would explain the importance of this offering of Sir R. Wing-
field but it will be remembered that when Sir Thomas More
;

was on the scaffold, laying his head vpon the blocke, he bad
"

the executioner stay vntill he had removed aside his beard,

18G
saying, that that had never committed anie treason.
"

IQ. TABERNACLES.
It will be noticed that the Series frequent mention
in is

made of "

Tabernacles
"

for the images of our Ladye.

Tabernacles were canopied niches. In ancient contracts
187
they were also called maisons, habitacles, hovels, and howsings,
all reverting to the original derivation of the word. The Latin
tabernaculum signifies a booth, or small taberna of boards,
capable of being put together or taken asunder, as a tent is
pitched. In the Vulgate it is thus employed for the portable
Temple of the Jews, "the Tabernacle in the Wilderness." Hence

the word came to signify any small cell or other place in which
some holy and precious things were deposited, and thus was
applied to the ornamental receptacle over the altar for the
Blessed Sacrament. Sepulchral monuments, the stalls in a
choir, and the sedilia, being surmounted by rich canopy work
all thiswas called tabernacle work. Inigo Jones applies it

to the niches of Roman architecture. 188

Sometimes these tabernacles for our Ladye s images were on
a magnificent scale, as at Bridlington and Peterborough others ;

were of silver, as at Caversham whilst at Walberswick the ;

tabernacle of Our Ladye of Pity was in 1474 to be painted and

gilt, according to the form of Our Ladye of Pity at Southwold. 189
Sometimes they were of smaller dimensions, and portable ;

thus, in the Wardrobe book of the 28th Edward the First are

185
S. p. 192.
188
Lire and Death of Sir T. More. By M. T. M. s. d. p. 335.
87
S. pp. 134, 135.
188
Glossary oj Architecture, p. 451.
189
S. p. 155.
 Conclusion. 26^

enumerated, an image the Blessed Virgin

Marye of ivory with
<5f

a tabernacle of ivory in a case in uno

coffino, and four images
of our Blessed Ladye, with tabernacles and 190
sundry images.
Evidently these were small polyptychs. In the jewels in the
treasury of Henry the Eighth was a tabernacle of gold with
Our Ladye of Pity. 191

Mv labour of love is finished. Most deeply grateful am I to

the Blissful Queen of Heaven for thatby her favour it has
been vouchsafed to me an unworthy but
hereditary liegeman
of her Dower to collect and
publish these evidences of the
affection which our forefathers bore her.
They prove that in
devotion to her Catholic
England was second to no nation in
the world.
A
nation which has once lost the faith has never
till now

regained it. Yet there is a world-wide belief that

England
will be restored to the Church of
Christ, and that at her second
conversion she will do more for
religion than at her first.
Among the many "signs of the times," it is impossible not
to notice the restorations which are
being made in all our old
desecrated churches, as if to
prepare them to be once more
Houses of God and the commencement of devotion
;
to our
Blessed Ladye in the Protestant Establishment.
Our
gracious Queen, whom
may God long preserve, counts
millions of loyal Catholic
subjects within the limits of her vast
Empire, on which the sun never sets; and within which a
thing that cannot be said of any other nation that has ever
existed from the rising to the
setting of the sun, the unbloody
Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated 192 on British
soil.
The might and prestige of the British is Empire already
in some degree at the service of the Church. Under the
protection of the glorious national banner,
charged with the
cross of St. George, our
Ladye s knight, missionaries go forth
to preach the Word of
God, and announce the praises of His
w Lib. Card.
Edw. I.
pp. 351, 352.
/Calendarsand Inventories of the vol.
102 Exchequer, ii. p. 274.
Malachi i. n.
264 Conclusion.

Maiden Mother, whose sweet name will soon be heard in the

far-off regions of Central Africa.

England, like Rome

of old, after having persecuted the
Church of Christ, ready to become a powerful instrument
is

for her exaltation, and for the propagation of the praises of the
Mother of God. 193
Upon the Catholics of England, the restored or hereditary
us,

liegemen of our Ladye s Dower, it devolves as a sacred duty

to endeavour to revive, in fervent practice, the grand old

English love of the Blissful Mother of God. British hearts

and British tongues do not stand in need of foreign phraseology ;

we cannot improve upon the terms in which our forefathers

addressed our Ladye. We need not go to the language of
Italy to tell her of our dutiful affection.
In these pages have endeavoured in brief terms to give
I

an idea of the and of the minute details of the

universality,
old English love of our Ladye, and how it was carried out.
Some the pious practices are known to us
of others are ;

forgotten some again are considered

;
old-fashioned. Can any
thing in the service of our Ladye be considered old-fashioned ?

Shall we ever have restored to us the venerable Uses of Sarum

and York, with the daily Marye Mass ? Will bedesmen be
summoned, as of yore, to attend funerals and recite the Psalter
of our ? Will the present generation learn to rejoice
Ladye
habitually with the joys of the Blissful Mother of God, or to
pity the woes of our Ladye of Pity ?
I hope that there is no Catholic Church in England in which

the image of our Ladye is not so placed as to be the object

of popular devotion. May we again see in all our churches
candle-beams and "perks," and votive candles, and "gawdyes"
and "joyes" burning in honour of her five joys, as heretofore.

May the charitable once more give "our

Ladye s meat," and
"our
Ladye s loaf" as alms on Saturdays in our dear Ladye s

love. May the Gabriel bell again peal forth, where it is not now
habitually tolled. May the evening anthem of our Ladye
become a popular usage. Cannot our school children be taught
regularly to greet our Ladye with an Ave whenever they pass
"The Empire of Rome was the most decided enemy of the early Church, yet
193

that very Empire, in God s hands, became a mighty instrument for the exaltation of
the Church
"

(Rev. George Porter, S.J.).

 Conclusion. 265

by her image ? Every congregation might easily supply three

Queens of our Ladye to look after the Marye-altar.
The memory of some, at least, of the celebrated sanctuaries
of our Ladye might be most appropriately revived and little ;

pilgrimages made to them in commemoration of the old ones

so ruthlessly plundered and destroyed. This is what has been
done in France. The time-honoured statue of our Lady of
Chartres was destroyed at the Revolution, but a new image
has replaced the original Our Ladye of Miracles at St. Omer s
;

is mutilated,
yet in this state she is the object of popular
devotion ;
whilst at her new sanctuary,
Boulogne-sur-mer
rebuilt on the ancient
the great pilgrimage in the north
site, is
of the Regnum Gallic, Rcgnum Maries, as heretofore and in ;

these, and many other renewed sanctuaries, our Ladye loves to

bestow her graces and favours as of yore. Might not devotion
to our Ladye of Pewe at Westminster, so dear to the Kings
of England, and so celebrated throughout their realm, be appro
priately revived at St. Marye s, Horseferry Road ? What church
more suitable to restore the cultus of Our Ladye of Graces by
the Tower than that of the English Martyrs ? or that of
St.Marye s, Moorfields, for the foundation of a Salve Guild ?
Happy, indeed, shall I be if these my humble and feeble
labours in our Ladye s love shall, with the blessing of God,
be the means of reviving some of the old English devotions in
her honour. And as I have been writing of Catholic times,
I may well conclude in the beautiful words penned in the ages
of faith :

Royne des angeles je te preng pour mon molen, confort

"

et ayde, et te prie et requierez humblement quil te plaise, par

ta clemence et doulceur, deffendre et garder de tous dangiers
et adversitez ceulx et celles quy ce present traittie, par bonne
intention et pour lonneur et reverence de toy, glorieuse Vierge,
volront lire et recorder. Amen." 194

Gloria, laus et honor Tibi sit, Rex, Christe Redemptor :

Gloria fine carens sit tibi Virgo Parens.

194
IJgtnde de N. Dame dc Boulogne. MS. XV. cent. Edited by Ilaignere,
Boulogne-sur-mer, 1863, p, 53.
 BOOK THE SECOND.

Catalogue of Shrines, Sanctuaries, Offerings,

Bequests, &c.
A
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

A CATALOGUE OF SHRINES, OFFERINGS, BEQUESTS, ETC.

ABINGDON. VS-fitfe*. In 675 Cyssa founded here a church in honour

of our Blessed Ladye,and a monastery for twelve
Benedictine monks. It became richly endowed,
for our Anglo-Saxon forefathers dearly loved to
1:lse tneir own affectionate form of
<

tL*&CC-(**S<*t language "to

make God and our Ladye their heirs." 1 And the

L<Ao/aA<iA$b-vt
fV|{*6fcharters of donations in land were not sent by a
messenger, but the pious donor would go to the
church attended by his friends and relations, all
Sr-f
of whom had approved of, or concurred in, the
donation, and reverently lay the deeds upon the
altar of our Lady. Thus Lullan, a noble Saxon,
who had received a gift of the vil of Estun from
King of Wessex, 784 800, desired to
Brihtric,
make God his heir, and gave Estun to Him and
our Ladye, and laid the charter upon the altar,
saying, mine richle that ic hsedde in Estun
"Al

ic gife to Sasinte Marie in Abbedun." 2

St. Eadward the Martyr and St. Dunstan
ordained that should be lawful for the people
it

to make pilgrimages, for the sake of devotion, to

3
the church of our Ladye of Abingdon.

AiLMERTON,NoRFOLK. Here was a light of our Blessed Ladye. 4

ALDBURGH,NORFOLK. Here was a celebrated image of our Blessed

Ladye in the church. 5

1
Chron. Monast. de Abingdon, pp. 15, 27. Edited by order of the Master of
the Rolls.
2
Ibid. p. 15.
8
Spelman, Concilia, vol. i. p. 493.
4
General History of Norfolk, p. 148. Norwich, 1829.
5
Ibid. p. 135,

B
2 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

ASHBY DE LA ZoucH. 1503, November 22. Katharine Lady Hastings

desires by her will to be buried in the Ladye
Chapel of Ashby de la Zouch, between the image
of our Ladye and the place assigned for the vicar s
6
grave.

ASHFORD. Thomas Wilmott, perpetual vicar of the parish

church of Ashford, in his will dated April 25,
1493, says :

Marye now
"

I will that the image of St.

standing in my study be placed at my expense

in the said chapel of St. 7
Nicholas."

8
ASHILL, NORFOLK. Here was a statue of our Ladye of Pity.
In 1458, 17 May, Jeffrey Coo was buried
before the altar of St. John the Baptist here. He
gave legacies to all the gilds, and 5 Ibs. of wax to
our Lady of Pitie s light. 9

Note. Prior to the Reformation nearly every

parish in England had one or more gilds, each
with their own chapel and chaplain. Some of
these gilds were for the especial purpose of keeping
up our Ladye s light. Some churches had the
married men s light and the single men s light.
In Norfolk alone there existed nine hundred and
nine gilds, of which one hundred and seventy-
eight were gilds of our Blessed Ladye. These
were most part suppressed by the Act of
for the

Henry VIII. which his successor put into exe

cution. 10

ASTON, BUCKS. By his will, October 28, 1490, Sir Gilbert

Stapylton leaves :

"to the Abbess of Aston Church, in Buck

ingham, a girdle of silver gilt, to hang at an image
of our Ladye in the said church." n

BANHAM, NORFOLK. In 1437, John Ropere, of Banham, gave I2J.

to the lamp that burns before the image of the
Blessed Virgin in the church. 12

6 7 8
Testamenta Vetusta, p. 450. Ibid. p. 450. Blomefield. ii.
349. Ibid. i.
613
10
Taylor, Index Monasticus of the Diocese of Norwich, p. 71. London, 1821.
11
Test. Vetust, p. 398. u Blomefield, i.
242.
 Old English Devotion to otir Blessed Ladye.

BARKING. This convent was founded by Erconvvald,

Bishop of London, in honour of our Blessed
Ladye. The charter of foundation is dated
677.13
Here was the chapel of our Ladye de Salue,
called also La Chapele de Salue, and the chapel
of Nostre Dame de Salue en larche. 14

Amongst the burials are named,

Dame Yolente de Sutton qe gist dettant lauter
Nostre Dame de Salue.
Dame Katharine Sutton gist en la chapele
de Nostre Dame de Salue en larche. 13
There was a "Gylde or Fraternite in the Wor-
schipp of our Ladye (St. Marye atte Naxe) in
the chapell of our Ladye in the cemetorie of
Berkyng Church of London," which is mentioned
in an Act of the ist Henry VII. ; and John, Earl
of Worcester, is described as being the late master
thereof. 16

Many oblations were made to our Ladye of

Barking.
In the household accounts of Elizabeth of
York, March 24, 1502 :

Offering to our Lady of Berking. \s. \\d.

17
February 26, I503.
"To Sir William Barton, preest, singyng at
our Ladye of Berking. vii/. \ \s. viij
7
rt .
18
And on
the 25th July, 1508, the Duke of Buckingham
made "oblation to our Ladye of Barking. 20 19
</."

BECCLES, SUFFOLK. Here was a chapel of our Ladye, with an

20
anchorite, at the foot of the bridge.
In 1374, Reginald de Ikelyngham leaves
xid . to the altar of our Lady in the Church of
St. Michael. 21

BEF.STON, NEAR THE Many legacies were given to our Ladye of

22
SEA, NORFOLK. Grace, and our Ladye of Pitie.

13 10
Dugdale, Mon. Angl.
"
i.
p. 436. Ibid. p. 441. Ibid. p. 441.
18 17 18
Rot. Parl. vi. p.343, b. Privy Expenses, p. 3. Ibid. p. 102.
19
Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. iii.
pt. i. n. 1285.
20 21
Suckling, Antiquities of Suffolk, vol. i. p. ii. London, 1842. Ibid. p. 15.
2S
Index, Mon. Dioc, Nor. p. 21.
B 2
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

BOSTON. Our Ladye in the Church of St. Botolph.

Here was pardon of the Sea la Coeli at
the
a
Rome, privilege which existed in England only
in the chapel of our Ladye of the Scala Cceli, in
the church of the Austin Friars at Norwich, and
23
the chapel of the same name at Westminster.

BOURNE. May 9, 1462. William Haute, esquire, desires

to be buried in the Austin Friars, Canterbury.
In his will he says :

I bequeath one piece of that stone on which

"

the Archangel Gabriel descended when he saluted

the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the image of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in the church of Bourne, the
same to stand under the foot of the same image." 24

BOULOGNE. Henry VIII. made several offerings to our

25
Ladye of Boulogne.
BRADLEY, Sir John Skevington, alderman of London, and

Co. LEICESTER. merchant of the Staple of Calais, by his will, leaves

"To our
Ladye of Bradley in Leicestershire
a white damask vestment with my arms on the
26
cross, worth 53^. 4^.

BRADSTOW, Our Ladye of Bradstow at Broadstairs. Here

KENT. was a much venerated image of our Ladye ; and
according to very old traditions, ships sailing
past used to salute her by lowering, or "dipping"
27
their topsails.

BRIGHTSTOW ON Leland enumerates "Our

Ladye Chapell on
28
AVON, OR BRISTOL. Avon Bridge."

2, Our Ladye in the Monastery of St. Austin s.

April 6, 1508. The Duke of Buckingham made

an oblation in the Monastery of St. Austin s,
"

29
Bristow, to our Lady in one crusady. 4^. 6d."

3. Our Ladye of Belhouse.

In January, 1521, the Duke of Buckingham
30
gave to our Ladye of Belhouse 4 s. </.

ss
Blomefield, ii.
p. 552.
24
Test. Vetust, p. 300.
25
N. Harris Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII, introduction, f. xx.

London, 1827 ;
also Hall, p. 791, ed. 1809.
26
Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. iv. p. i. n. 952.
27 A very old tradition ; quoted on the authority of the late Right Rev. Dr. Grant,
Lord Bishop of Southwark, and of others.
28
Itin. vi. p. 86.
29 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. iii.
pt. i. n. 1285.
30
Ibid.
 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye. 5

BUCKINGHAM, 1429. Peter Payne of Barham left to the

NORFOLK. chapel of the Blessed Virgin at Thetford 6s. &/.,
and to the chapel of the Blessed Virgin at
31
Buckyngham 13^. 4^.

BURGHAM, Leland says :

Co. WESTMORELAND. There is an old castel on the ... side of

"

Edon Water cawlled Burgh. About a dim from

the castel is a village cawlled Burgham, and ther
"
3-
is a gret pilgrimage to our Ladye.

CALAIS. In the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VIII.

is this entry :

Offering at our at
"

1520, June. Ladye St.

Peter s Church without Calais, at the King s

33
coming from, 6.r. &/."

1532, November 12. Item. Paied to my

"

lorde Chamberlayne for the King s offering at our

34
Ladye in the wall at Calais, v J."

CAMBERWELL, Richard Skynner, in his will dated 1492, gives

SURREY. \2d. for a light before the image of the Blessed
35
Virgin Mary.

CAMBRIDGE. There was a much venerated image in the

church of the Black friars, which formerly stood
on the spot now occupied by Emmanuel College.
Concerning it, John Bishop of Rochester, wrote
to Cromwell that there hath of long time been
"

an image of our Ladye in the said house of friars,

the which hath much pilgrimage unto her, and
specially at Sturbridge fair; and for as much as
that time draweth near, and also that the said

prior cannot bear such idolatry as hath been used

to the same, his humble request is that he may
have commandment by your lordship to take
away the said image from the people s sight."
The Atlas Marianus 30 enumerates our Ladye of
Cambridge, described as Imago B. V. miraculosa
and quotes a story from a MS. in the
Liberatrix,
Vatican, about a young student named William
Vidius (query, White?). It may be summed up
briefly as follows
31
Blomefield, i. p. 241.
52 33Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 154-
Itin. vii. p. 49.
34 35
p r ivy Purse, Henry VIII. p. 272. Manning, Hist, of Surrey, iii. p. 423
36
P. 1028, n. cmlxxii, ed. Monachal, 1672.
6 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

A young student by name William Vidius, led

an irregular life, but never laid aside his devotions
to our Ladye, and was accustomed daily to honour
her, by reciting before her image certain prayers.
He had a comrade, James by name, who shared
his room, and one night as they slept, James was
awakened by the groans of his companion, who,
he observed, was trembling and covered with
sweat, as though he was suffering from great
terror. With some difficulty James succeeded
in awakening him. "Well is it for me,"
exclaimed
William, "that I have been used to honour the
image of the Blessed Virgin, for otherwise I
should have perished eternally. For this night I
have stood before Christ the Judge, who required
of me a strict account of my life. The enemy
was about to seize my soul, when I beheld the
Blessed Mother of God, and, according to my
custom invoking her aid, she put the demon to
flight, and obtained for me a further respite."
William might have thought that it was a mere
dream, if he had not found in his hand a paper in
writing unknown to him, which contained all the
crimes of his life, and many things known to
himself alone. The next day he went and threw
himself at the feet of his spiritual father, and
made a full confession, and thenceforth reformed
hismanner of life. His friend James subsequently
became a priest.

CANTERBURY. i. St.
Augustine s monastery in Canterbury was
founded by King ^Ethelbert and St. Augustine in
608.
His son and successor, /Ethelbald, built a
chapel here in honour of our Blessed Ladye, in
which he was buried in 640, as also his wife
Emma. 87
This was the chapel in which St. Dunstan had
his visions.
"At the east end of the monastery was the
oratory of the Blessed Marye which King ^Ethel-
bald built, and in which reposed the bodies of
many saints. So pleasing to the Queen of Heaven

37 Mon. AngJ. p. 120.

Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 7

was this oratory, that, according to the English

proverb, it was called the Sacrarium or Vestiarium
of Marye. In it did the Mistress of the world
often appear ;
in it was the brightness of miracles
made manifest ;
in it the voices of angels and the
melodious strains of holy virgins were frequently
heard in it did the Blessed Dunstan see mani
;

festly St. Adrian amongst

the choirs of heavenly
with the Queen of the world herself, prais
spirits,
see with his very eyes, and
ing God in it did he ;

hear with his ears, the Blessed Mother of Christ

in alternate voices, the
singing, with her virgins,
verses of Sedulius.

Cantemus, sociae, Domino, cantemus honorem

Amor
"

Dulcis Christi personet ore pio.

The chronicler continues that Abbot Wulfric,

wishing toextend the buildings of the monastery,

pulled down the west end of this chapel, and
removed the cemetery of the community, and
gave that space to the new buildings.
The abbot,
however, came shortly to a sudden end, and
some, was considered in the light of
which, by
a judgment from heaven, in consequence of his
of our
having demolished the ancient sanctuary
Blessed Ladye. 38
Our Ladye at Rolles.
2.

At the feast given at the enthronization of

William Wareham, Archbishop of Canterbury,
my Lord s table in ye Gret Hall.
"in

In the seconde boorde of the same warner

"

the King presented my Lorde in his doctor s

habit unto our Ladye at Rolles, sytting in a
towre with many rolles about hym, with comfort

able words of his promotion, as it appeareth in

the verse folowynge.

Est locus egrcgius tibi Virgo Sacrata dicatus,

Publica servari quo monumenta solent.
Hie promo hunc, si tu dignabere, dignor honore :

39
Commendo fidei scrinia sacra suEe."

This must have been the representation of

some image of our Ladye, known as our Ladye
at Rolles, but no other particulars have as yet
been found.
3a Mon. Angl.
8 Chron.W. Thome ap.Twisden, col. 1785.
i.
115.
8 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

3. Our Ladye Undercroft.

The celebrated chapel of our Ladye Under
croft, or in the crypt, was exactly under the high
altar. The statue of our Ladye stood in a canopied

niche, or as the old name was, a

"

tabernacle,"

on a rich pedestal, on which were sculptured in

relief subjects from her life. Even in its present
ruined state it displays remains of its former
splendour. On the vaultings may be seen traces
of brilliant blue colourings, on which appear small
convex gilt mirrors and gilded quatrefoils. The
royal arms are painted in the centre, and forty
other shields of coat armour are emblazoned on
the lower part of the arches. This chapel was
much enriched by Prior Goldstone, and the shields
of arms, which mostly belong to the Lancastrian
noblemen of the Court of Henry VI. would seem
to have been placed there as memorials of notable

offerings at the shrine of our Ladye.

Giraldus Cambrensis mentions a great miracle
40
wrought at our Ladye of Canterbury in his time.
The Black Prince desired by his will to be
buried "

in the Cathedral Church of the Trinity of

Canterbury, where the body of the true martyr
Monsire St. Thomas reposes, in the centre of the

chapel of our Ladye Undercrofte, right before the

altar so that the end of our tomb may be ten feet
from the altar." But with these directions the
executors did not comply ; they erected his tomb
in the chapel of St. Thomas, immediately to the
south of his shrine. 41
Numerous offerings were made to our Ladye
Undercroft,
In the accounts of Elizabeth of York :

24 March, 1502. Offering to our Ladye of

Undercroft by Richard Milner, of Bynfeld, v. s. 4Z
25 December. Item. Delivered to Doctour
Attoure for the Queene s offerings to our Ladye
of Undercroft, Canterbury, iij s. iiij d.^
40
Opp. vol. ii. Gemma Ecclesiastica, dist. i. c. xxxiv. Rolls Ed.
41
Cardinal Morton, who died in 1500, desired to be buried before the image of the
most Blessed Virgin Marye, commonly called our Ladye of Undercroft, whom he so
dearly loved. Two monks were to say each one Mass a day for twenty years, together
with the Placebo and Dirige for his soul (Anglia Sacra i.
64).
4*
Privy Expenses, p, 3.
43
Ibid. p. 8l.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 9

In those of Henry VIII. :

September, 1514. Offering at our Ladye

Undercroft, 6 s. 8 d.^
May, 1520. Offering at our Ladye Under
croft, Canterbury, 6 s. 8 d.^

Erasmus, in his Peregrinatio religionis ergo,

givesa brief description of the chapel of our
Ladye Undercroft From the shrine of St.
:
"

Thomas, we returned to the crypt. Here the

Virgin Mother has an abode, but somewhat dark,
inclosed within a double screen of iron, for fear of
thieves, forindeed I never saw a thing more laden
with riches. When lamps were brought, we beheld
more than a royal spectacle, which in beauty far
surpassed that of Walsingham. This is only
shown to men of high rank, or great friends."
46

CARBROOKE MAGNA, Opposite to the south side of the church was

NORFOLK. the chapel of our Blessed Ladye, whose altar and
image were also in it ; this belonged to the gild
of our Blessed Ladye, which maintained a priest
to sing there. 47

CARLTON COLVILLE, Here, in the Church of St. Peter, was a chapel

SUFFOLK. of our Blessed Ladye, and a provision for finding
a light to burn before her image. 48

CASTON, NORFOLK. At Caston there was a gild of our Blessed

Ladye, and a light constantly burning before her
.40
image.

CAVERSHAM, BUCKS. The image of our Ladye of Caversham stood

in a chapel attached to the church of Caversham,
which, in 1162, was granted by King John to the
Austin Canons of Nutley or Notcele Abbey, in
the same county. The chapel was then in
existence, and was held of sufficient importance
to be named separately in the deed of gift.

Subsequently, the canons came into possession

of a manor at Caversham, and erected a cell to
their monastery, which was much enriched by
the offerings made in the chapel of our Ladye.
Gilbert Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, granted to
44 **
Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. ii. n. 1465. Ibid. p. 1541.
46
Erasmi Colloquia. Amstelodami, 1644, p. 418.
47 48
Blomefield, i. 602. Suckling, ii. p. 241.
4<J

Blomefield, i.
564.
 io Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the canons the tithes of all his mills and fisheries

at Caversham, together with the annual sum of
twelve shillings, for the maintenance of two lamps
to burn continually before our Ladye, for the
health of his soul, and the soul of his brother. 50
In her will, Isabel, Countess of Warwick, says :

our Ladye of Caversham I bequeath a crown

"To

of gold, made of my chain and other broken gold

51
in my cabinet, weighing twenty pounds."
Many offerings were also made here.
In the accounts of Elizabeth of York :

1502, March 24. Item. Delivered to Sir

William Barton, priest, for the offering of the
52
Queen to our Ladye of Caversham, ii.r. vi*/.
In the accounts of the King :

1517, September 6-13. Offering by the King

at our Ladye of Caversham, 18 s. 4 //. 53
1520, August. Offering at our Ladye of
Caversham on Ladye- day, 6 s. 8 */. 54
Sir Robert Wingfield, writing to Wolsey from

Easthampstead, on the i;th July, 1532, says, in

a postscript to his letter This morning the
:
"

King rode forth right early to hunt, and the

55
Queen is ridden to our Ladye of Cawssam."
The fate of our Ladye of Caversham has been
preserved to us.
Dr. London, writing to Cromwell, says :

"

In my most humble maner I have me

comendyd unto yower gude lordeschippe acer-
tenyng the same that I have pullyd down the
image of our Ladye at Caversham, wherunto
wasse great pilgremage. The image ys platyd
over wyth sylver, and I have putt yt in a cheste
fast lockyd and nayled uppe, and by the next
bardyge that corny the from Reding to London
yt shall be browght to your lordeschippe. I have
also pullyd down the place sche stode in, with
all other ceremonyes, as lightes, schrowdes,

crowchys, and imagies of wax hangyng abowt

the chapell, and have defacyd the same thorowly
in exchuyng of any farther resortt thedyr. Thys
chapell dydde belong to Notley Abbey, and ther
60 51
Northcote, Shrines of the Madonna, p. 258. Test. Vestut. 240.
62
pr vv Expenses, p. 3.
i
S3
Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. ii. n. 1476.
54 &5
Ibid, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 1545. Letters and Papers, vol. iv. Henry VIII, n. 2393.
 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye. 1 1

always wasse a chanon of that monastery which

wasse callyd the warden of Caversham, and he
songe in the chapell, and hadde the offeringes
56
for hys lyvinge."

In another letter, possibly to Sir Richard Rich,

Dr. London says more on the subject of his
sacrilegious proceedings ;
his letter is very valu
able evidence of the popular devotion to our
Ladye of Caversham.
have pullyd down the image of your Ladye
"

at Caversham, with all trynkettes abowt the same,

as schrowdes, candels, images of wax, crowches

brochys, and have thorowly defacyd that chapell

in exchuyng of any farther resortt, ffor even at

my being ther com in nott so few as a dosyn with

imagies of wax. The image is thorowly platyd
over with sylver. I have putt her in a cheste
fast lockyd and naylede, and by the next bardge
that comythe uppe it schall be browyt to my
lorde, with her cootes, cappe and here, with
57
dyvers relykes, &c."
In a third letter Dr. London adds :

"

I have also sent iii. cotes of the image, with

58
such thinges as I fownde upon them."

CHATHAM. i. In the will of Symon Fagge. c. 1535.

bequeath a taper of a pound of wax to
"

I
59
our Ladye in St. Gyles chapel."

Our Ladye of Chatham.

2.

The celebrated image of our Ladye of

3.
Chatham is believed to have stood in a niche over
the entrance arch to the north porch of the old
Norman church, now no longer existing.

William Lambarde, an eminent lawyer and

antiquary, born 1536, and who died 1601, was
the author of several learned books, one of which
was A Perambulation of Kent, written in 1570,
and published six years later. He gives in it the
60
following account of our Ladye of Chatham :

"Although I have not hitherto at any time

read any memorable things recorded in historic
56
Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries, Camden
Society, 1843, p. 221.
57 58 5a
Ibid. p. 224. Ibid. 226. Test.Vetust. 670.
eo
Lambarde, p. 324. ed. Chatham, 1826.
12 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

touching Chatham itselfe, yet, for so much as I

have often heard (and that constantly) reported, a
Popish illusion done at the place, and for that
also it is as profitable to the keeping under of
fained and superstitious religion, to renew to mind
the priestly practices of olde time (which are now
declining to oblivion) as it is pleasant to reteine
in memorie the monuments and antiquities of
whatsoever other kinde, I think it not amisse to
commit what I have received
faithfully to writing
credibly, by hearing, concerning the idols, some
time knowen by the name of our Ladye and the
Roode of Chatham, and Gillingham.
It happened (say they) that the dead
"

corpse
of a man (lost through shipwracke belike) was
cast on land in the parish of Chatham, and being
there taken up, was by some charitable persons
committed to honest buriall within their church-
yarde which thing was no sooner done, but our
:

Ladye of Chatham, finding herself offended there

with, arose by night, and went in person to the
house of the parishe clearke (which then was in
the streete a good distance from the church), and
making a noise at his windowe, awaked him. This
man commonly it fareth with men
at the first (as
disturbed demanded somewhat
in their
rest)
roughly, who was there? But when he under-
stoode by hir own answer, that it was the Ladye
of Chatham, hee changed his note, and most
mildely asked the cause of her good Ladiship s
comming. She told him, that there was lately
buried (near to the place where she was honoured)
a sinfull person, which so offended hir eie with his
ghastly grinning, that unlesse he were removed,
she could not but (to the great griefe of good
people) withdraw her selfe from that place, and
cease her wonted miraculous working amongst
them. And
therefore she willed him to go with
her, to theend that (by his helpe) she might take
him up, and cast him again into the river.
The clerke obeied, arose, and waited on her
"

toward the church; but the good Ladie (not

wonted to walke) waxed wearie of the labour, and
therefore was inforced for very want of breath to
sit downe in a. bush
by the way, and there to rest
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 13

her. And this place

(forsooth), as also the whole
tracke of their iournay
(remaining ever after a
green path) the towne dwellers were wont to shew.
Now after a while, they go forward againe,
"

and comming to the churchyarde, digged

up the
body, and conveied it to the waterside, where it
was first found. This done, our
Ladye shranke
againe into her shrine, and the clerke peaked
home to patch up his broken sleepe, but the
corpse now eftsoones rioted up and down the
did before. Which thing
river, as it being at length
espied by them of Gillingham, it was once more
taken up and buried in their
churchyard. But see
what followed upon it, not only the Roode of
Gillingham (say they) that a while before was
busie in bestowing miracles, was now
deprived of
all that his former
vertue, but also the very earth
and place where this carcase was laide, did con
tinually for ever after settle and sinke downeward.
"

This
tale, receaved by tradition from the

elders,was (long since) both

commonly reported
and faithfully credited of the vulgar
sort; which
although happily you shall not at this day learne
at every man s mouth (theimage being now many
years sithence defaced) yet
many of the aged
number did lately remember it wel, and in the
time of darknesse. Hac erat in Mo notissima
fabitla mundo. But here (if I might be so bould
as to adde to this fable, his svipudtov (or Fabula
significat}, woulde tell you that I thought the
I
morall and minde of the tale to bee none
other,
but that this clerkely this fwdovXaffrrig, talewright
(I say)and fable-forger, being either the Farmer
or owner of the
offerings given to our Ladye of
Chatham, and crossing the common haunt and
pilgrimage to the Roode of Gillingham (lately
erected Ad
nocumentum of his gaine), devised this
apparition for the advancement of the one and
defacing of the other.
"For
(no doubt) if that age had beene as
prudent in examining spirits as it was prone to
beleeve illusions, it should have found that our
Ladies path was some such
greene trace of grasse
as we daily behold in the fields
(proceeding
indeede of a naturall cause,
though by olde wives
14 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

and superstitious people reckoned to be the

dancing places of night spirits, which they call

fayries). And that this sinking grave was nothing
else but a false filled pitte of Maister Clearks
owne digging.
"The man was to blame, thus to make debate

between our Ladye and her Sonne, but since the

whole religion of Papistrie it self is Theomachia
and nothing else, let him be forgiven, and I will
go forward."

CHESTER. Here was a celebrated statue of our Blessed

Ladye in the Church of St. Werburga, and many
miracles were wrought. It stood in the south

side of the choir, over the head of the tomb of

Goddestald the hermit.
Father Daniel a Virgin e Maria relates what
follows respecting our Ladye of Chester :

In this city there were some people who

"

were envious of the Carmelites, and said that the

special title of servants of Marye belonged to the
other religious orders rather than to them; for
which the divine indignation fell upon them. For
almost all the detractors of the Carmelite Order
died of a sudden death. Wherefore Thomas, the
abbot of the monastery of St. Werburga in the
same city, determined that a general procession
should be made to St. Werburga s, in which
monastery, in the south part of the choir, at the
head of the tomb of the hermit Goddestald, stood
an image of the Blessed Virgin Marye by which
God wrought many miracles. Whilst the proces
sion was moving and the Carmelites
on, had
arrived at the image, and were venerating it,
in

presence ofassembled multitude, the

a large
image, extending its hand towards them, said in
the hearing of all present, Behold my brothers,
behold my brothers, behold my beloved and
61
chosen brothers !
"

Henry de Sutton, nineteenth abbot, died

May 8, 1-413, and was buried in the broad aisle,
close to the north side of the south pillar, next to
the entrance into the choir, before a painting
formerly called our Ladye of Pitie. 62
81
Speculum Carmelitanum per R.P. F. Danielem a Virg. Maria, Carmelit.
Antv. 1680, n. 790, f.
179.
88
Mon. Angl. ii. 374.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 15

CHEWE. In May, 1508, the Duke of Buckingham made

an "

oblation to my Ladye of Chewe. 20 a7 ."

63

CHEVELEY, Here was a gild of our Ladye which kept a

CAMBRIDGESHIRE. light burning in the parish church, the bracket of
the image being still in existence on the pier of
the tower.
In old wills there are many bequests to this
04
gild.

CHOBHAM, SURREY. In 1488 a sheep was given by will to the

light of our Blessed Ladye. 65

Animals were occasionally left for the

Note.

support of lights. Thus in 1520 Christopher

Travers, of Chaldon, Surrey, leaves a sum of
money to provide an image of St. Roch, together
with a cow for the support of a
taper, to be kept
60
burning before the image.
COKETHORPE. Here was a celebrated image of our Ladye, to
which numerous offerings were made.
In the accounts of Elizabeth of York :

1502, March 24.

"

Item. Delivered to Sir

William Barton, preest, for
thofferinge of the
Queene to our Ladye of Cokthorp, 07
xx</."

COLTON, NORFOLK. Had a light of the Blessed Virgin

Marye,
and two others, of St. John the and
Baptist
St. Andrew. 68

CROWHAM. In the accounts of Elizabeth of York :

"

1502, March 24. Item to Richard Mylner,

of Bynfield, for money to be offered for the
Quene, to our Ladye of Crowham, Us. 69 vi</."

CABROKE, OR Mentioned in the accounts of Elizabeth of

COLNBROOK, NEAR York :

WINDSOR. "1502, July 12. Item. Delivered to the

Quene for hire offring at oure of Cabroke,
Ladye
viii d.
"

Item. The same day, to the hermite there

in aulmous, xii d.
"

Item. The same day, to a poure man that

guyded the Quene s grace thider, iiij d."

53
Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. iii. n.
pt. i.
p. 497, 1285.
64
Proceedings of the Suffolk Arc/geological Institute, vol. i.
p. 247.
65
Manning, Hist, of Surrey, iii. p. 353.
66
Surrey Archaological Collections, iii. p. 353. 67
* Privy Expenses, p. 3.
Blomefield, i. 664. w Privy Ibid p. 31.
Expenses, p. 3. t
1 6 Old English Devotion to otir Blessed Ladye.

COURT UP STREET, Leland says :

KENT. is a bowte a Myle fro Lymme

"

Court up Street
Hille, day yt is a Membre of Lymme
and at this
Paroche. Howbeyt, ther is a Chaple for the
Howses that now remayne, and this is the Chaple
communely cawlled Our Ladye of Court up Streate,
wher the Nunne of Cantorbiry wrought al her fals
71
miracles."

This sanctuary was long held in veneration,

but it obtained celebrity in the reign of Henry VIIL,

by being the scene of the pretended revelation of

Elizabeth Barton, Maid of Kent.
Here was a hermit in the chapel of our Ladye.
About 1528 Dame Isabel Poynyngs of Smeethe
in the County of Kent, bequeathed
"To our Ladye Chapel of Curt of Strete a
yard and two nails and a half of cloth of gold for
a vestment.
72
"

To the hermit of Curt up Strete vi s. vihV."

COVENTRY. The celebrated image of our Blessed Ladye

of Coventry is imperishably associated with the
name of that perfect model of an Anglo-Saxon
lady, Godgifu, Countess
of Mercia, the peerless
sister of Thorold, shire-reeve of Lincoln, and
wife of that faithful lover of his country, wise
statesman, loyal subject, and devoted husband,
Leofric, Earl of Mercia. Lovely as Godgifu was,
the beauties of her soul and her virtues far eclipsed

her personal charms. Ingulph, who had many

opportunities of seeing her, when he was with his
father, who held a position at the Court of
St.

Eadward, describes her as tune faminarum pul-

cherrima, sic corde sanctissima. The old his

torians vie with each other in her praise. Orderic

Vitalis, and the chronicler of Evesham, call her
the religiosa comitissa Roger Hoveden describes
her as Dei cultrix et Sanctce Maries, semper Virginis
amatrix devota. 1 Henry of Huntingdon says that
she nomine perpetuo digna, multa probitate viguit
71 Itin. vii. pp. 132, 133.
72 Test. Vetust. p. 634.
73
Scriptores Rerum. Anglicarum, pp. 892, 895. Francofurti, 1601.
74 Vol. ii. p. 183. Edit. Paris, 1840; Chron. of Evesham, p. 85. Rolls Edit.
75
Ad aim. 1057, vol. i. p. 103. Rolls Edit.
76
Scrip. Rer. Angl. ad
arm. 13 Eadw. Conf. p. 366.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 17

And John of Oxenedes, who uses the same words,

adds, et lauded Richard of Cirencester names her

ancilla Christi devotissima And Henry de
Knyghton, Beatce Mar ice. cultrix

Indeed, her memory is like the composition

"

of a sweet perfume made by the art of a per

fumer. Her remembrance shall be sweet as honey
in every mouth, and as music at a banquet of
wine."
80 Most appropriately may those words of
the Royal Psalmist be applied to her, Zelus Domus
tua comedit me, for her life was in accordance with
them. Truly was she the Godgifu, the Good Gift,
as Aelred says, "who most magnificently put into

execution the signification of her name, for it is

translated as the Good Gift, either because God

brought her into existence as a Good Gift

to be of

advantage to His Church, or that she continually

offered to God a most acceptable gift of faith and
devotion."
81
Happy, thrice happy, was Leofric to
have such a wife "happy is the husband of a

good wife, for the number

is double" of his years

happy Godgifu, to be united to a husband

whose privilege it was when kneeling by the side
of Eadward, his sainted sovereign, to see visibly

Christ our Lord.

In this abbey (Westminster)

One day it chanced that King Eadward

Heard Mass; on the other side

Earl Leofric in this monastery
Heard Mass at this altar.
This earl was of good life,
Of great honour and lordliness,
Founder of several monasteries,
As were his ancestors ;
And Godiva, the countess,
His who there heard Mass.
wife,
Well agreed they with the behaviour
Of King Eadward, who was there before.
In deep devotion were they,
In tears and in prayers ;
The King prayed intently
For his kingdom and for his people,
And that he might so reign in this life
That in the other he perish not.

77
Chron. p. 28. Rolls Edit.
78 iv. c. 26, vol. p. 267. Rolls Edit.
Spec. Hist, de Gestis Regum Anglix,
ii.

70
Ap. Twisden, p. 2334.
80 Ecclus. xlix.
81
Vita S. Eadwardi Regis, vol. 195, col. 760. Edit. Migne.

C
1 8 Old English Devotion to our Blessed La dye.
When the chaplain raised
The Body of God between his hands,
Lo a very beauteous Child
!

Pure, bright, and like a spirit,

Appeared to King Edward.
The earl looks on his side,
And his heart well understands
That this is
Almighty Jesus,
The heavenly King of all kings ;
Now that his right hand has raised
The Child, the King vows to Him,
Begs for medicine for his sins ;
To the King He gives His blessing,
And this same vision
The earl sees, and to the King
He turned ;
he says, "

Quiet thee,
Thou seest, it seems to me, what I see ;

This Jesus in
is Whom
I believe."
The King to Jesus bows and prays ;

With joy of spirit weeps,

Ceases not tenderly to weep,
As long as lasted the Mass.
After the Mass, says the King
"Leofric, friend, this secret,
As a loyal knight and earl,
I pray you relate not to man ;
For you will not be believed,
Or will be considered foolish.
Let it not be known in my life,
That it appear no
hypocrisy ;
Since it is better to follow the example
Of our Lord, \Vho commanded silence
To the three who came to the Mount
Tabor with Him, and had the sight,
Peter and his two companions,
Of the Transfiguration."
Then went the earl to Worcester,
To a holy man who was monk and priest,
And related to him the vision
In secret confession,
And prayed him to put it in writing,
In order to keep it in remembrance,
That at any time it may be known
By the letter which would be read ;
And he said, So be it after my days,
"

W T
hen you shall be assured of my death ;
I give you assurance of the circumstance
That you may conceal it as I have done."
He answered that he might be confident
That through him it should never be discovered.
All this adventure he wrote,
The writing placed in a chest,
Which was in a holy and safe place ;
Then a long time, after the days
Of King Eadward and the earl,
As history relates it,
The chest opens of itself,
And the secret was made known. 84

Aelred says of Leofric : Hie a latere regis,

pauluhtm tamen semotus, astabat, dignus per omnia
8a
La Estoire de Seint Aedwarde le Rei, lines
25142597. Rolls Edit.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 19

testis existent.**
qui tanti talisquc miraculi conscius
et

These words have much significance in reference

to a miracle of the Blessed Sacrament, and bear
of
fulltestimony to the great sanctity of the Earl
Mercia. In the sixth century, St. Gregory of
Tours describes a miracle of the Blessed Sacrament,
which took place at the moment when the deacon
was bearing the ciborium in his hands. Out of
the people assembled, but four saw It a priest ;

and three women, one of whom was the mother of

St. Gregory. Aderam fateor, continues the Saint,
d tune temporibus, huic festivitati, sed
hac
ego.
aiderc non merui.^
In the Sarum Breviary there is a prayer in
which reference is made to this miracle.
Dens qui unigenitum Filium tuum Dominant
nostrum Jesum Christum glorioso Regi Eduardo in
ut
forma visibili demonstrasti ; tribue qucesumus,
ad tzternam ipsius Domini
ejus meritis et predbus
nostri Jesu Christi visionem pertingere mereamur.
85
Qui, d?v.
The date of the marriage of Leofric with
Godgifu is not given ; it took place, probably,
between 1005 and 1010, for their only son ^Elfgar
8G
charter of Cnut in io32.
appears as a witness to a
of wars,
Brought up, as he had been, in times
turbulence, and would appear, that, in
pillage, it

his early years,

had not always proved
Leofric
himself a devout son of Holy Church ; witness
his assisting his own nephew ./Ethelwine to

the will of his father, and thereby to

upset
obtain possession of Salewarp, which Godwine
87
had restored to Worcester; and his support to
Earngate, the son of Grim, against Wulstan,
88 But the sad fate of
Bishop of Worcester.
./Ethelwine in 1014, and the untimely deaths of
the children of Earngate, the son of Grim, would
not have been without effect on the mind of
Leofric ; they were probably the turning-point of

83 Edit.
Vit. St. Eadwardi, vol. 195, col. 760. Migne.
84
De lib. 86, vol. 71, col. 781. Edit. Migne.
Miraculis, I, c.
85
Acta SS. I, p. 302.
86 Cod. Diplom. JEvi, Sax. iv. Ch. dccxlviii.
p. 4.
87
Chartular, Eccl. Wigorniensis. Edit. Heanie. Oxon. 1723, p. 259.
Heming
88 Ibid. pp. 260, 261.

C 2
2O Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

his life, and may have been the means used by

God to develope the inherent piety of the truly
noble Earl of Mercia.
Indeed all the old historians bear testimony
to the piety of Leofric, and his munificence in
whatever would promote the greater glory of God.
I have only alluded to these acts of his younger
days, in order that his real character may be
more strongly brought out, and the sincerity of
his repentance more manifest. No evidence more
conclusive of his virtuous disposition can be
adduced than the fact that he, the noblest of the

great Earls of the nation, should have remained

the loyal subject and faithful adviser of Cnut, who
shortly after attaining the crown of England had
caused Leofrics brother, the Duke Northman, to

be executed, and, according to the general re

corded opinion, without cause. What a glorious
example of a mind wholly in accordance with the
divine precepts of the Gospel.
Shortly afterwards he became on intimate terms
of friendship with JEfic, a monk of Evesham,
subsequently prior, and then named dean of
Christianity for the vale of Evesham. ^Efic was
much beloved and respected by Cnut and the
leading men of the land, on account of his

sanctity. He was brother to Wlsi or Wulsi, the

holy hermit ; and, according to Ingulph, he was

related to Leofric. 89By ^Efic s exhortations, con
tinues the chronicler, the Earl Leofric and the
Countess Godgifu for he was their confessor

(eo quod pater erat suarum confessionuni) most

prudently despising the world in many things, and
diligently devoting themselves to alms and prayers,
built ina glorious manner the Abbey of Coventry,
and many other churches, for the love of God, and
enriched them with lands, and possessions, and
most magnificent ornaments. 90
91
Coventry or Conventria was a vill so named
because a convent, of which St. Osburga formerly
was abbess, had existed there ; it appears to have
been burnt down when Eadric ravaged the
89 Rer. Angl. Scriptores, p. 892.
90 Chron. Abb. de Evesham, p. 83. Rolls Edit.
91
Camden Britannia, xi. p. 330. Lond. 1789.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 21

country. This place, or township, described in

villa, and land in Saxon
92 as
the Latin charters
ones, had become the property of Leofric.
Whether from old associations, or from the
beauties of the locality, he choose the site of the
ruined convent for the magnificent abbey which
he and his wife had determined to found. Ingulph,
however, if credence may be given to him,
of
ascribes this pious resolution to the instigation
93
Godgifu.
Their project once formed, the munificent
founders lost no time in carrying it into execution.
The pious Countess Godgifu, says Orderic Vitalis,
whose evidence is worthy of belief, gave to the

church of the monastery all her treasures, and

distributed all
sending for goldsmiths, devoutly
the gold and silver that she possessed to make
the sacred books and Gospels, and crosses, and
of the saints, and other marvellous
church
images
ornaments. 94 In a word, for the love of God and
the service of the Church, she, literally,
denuded

herself of all her personal property.

as to
Unfortunately, no precise date exists
when the erection of the church and monastery
95
commenced, JEfic, the noble dean, died in
but that
1037, according to the Saxon chronicle,
96
of Evesham puts his death in xoaS; consequently
he did not live to see the completion of the
magnificent work which he
had suggested. He
was buried at Evesham in the new Church of the
had
Holy Trinity, which Leofric and Godgifu
built, and in the presence of Lady Godgifu, who
had gone thither to pay the last tribute of regard
to her venerated spiritual father, "who whilst
he
97
lived, ever bore her in But yEgelnoth,
memory."

surnamed the Good, Archbishop of Canterbury,

on his return from Rome in 1024, whither he had
for the pallium, passed through Pavia,
gone
where he bought the arm of St. Augustine for a

*>
2
Compare Charter dcclxvi. in the Cod. Dipl. /Evi. Sax. iv. p. 73.
93 Ut supra, p. 822.
4
Edit. Paris, 1840, xi. p. 183.
u3
So called in the Sax. Chron. ad ann. 1037.
Chron. Abb. de Evesham, 83.
97 Ibid.
p. 84.
22 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

hundred talents of silver and one of gold ; and,

out of his love for Leofric, he gave this precious
relic to the church of Coventry. vEgelnoth died
98
on the 29th of October, 1038 ;
but the Peter
borough chronicle records the gift of the arm of
St. Augustine under the year 1024." Hence it is
probable that the church and monastery had
already been begun. There can be no doubt
that the erection and decoration of such a pile
of buildings must have occupied many years.
Fourteen years were consumed in building
Westminster Abbey, under the eyes of the King,
and in the capital of the nation, where the
services of workmen, cunning in their
skilful

various crafts, readily be commanded

could ;

whereas goldsmiths, and it may equally be

presumed, masons, and sculptors, and carpenters
had to be sent for to Coventry. The church was
solemnly dedicated on the 4th of the Nones of
October, 1043.
The charter of Leofric 100 endows the monastery
with twenty-four wills situated in seven different
counties,and half of the vill of Coventry, for the
support of an abbot and twenty-four monks. He
gives them sac and soc, toll and team, and liberty,
and all the customs everywhere as he had ever
held them of St. Eadward, whose name, with many

others, appears as a witness.

Eadward
St. also gave a chaiter 101 confirming
the above, and freeing the property of the church
from including the usual Saxon trinoda
all taxes,

necessitas, and all payments of any kind to the

King, his lieutenant, the bishop, or any other

person, and to make it more stringent, he incor
porated the confirmatory bull of Alexander the
Third (Benedict the Ninth.) 102
08 Godwin de Prsesulibus Anglise, p. 55,
09
Chron. Anglise Petroburgense. Edit. Giles, Lond. 1845.
100 Ch. dccccxxxix. Cod. Dip. ^Evi. Sax. vol. iv. p. 73.
101
Ch. dccccxvi. Ibid. vol. iv. p. 253.
102
These charters are perfectly genuine, but the name of Pope Alexander is intro
duced. He reigned from 1061 to 1073, consequently it is evident that they are copies
of the original ones, and made by some scribe in the time of Alexander the Third. It
was by no means unusual in those days, for safety s sake, to have double and even
triple copies made. I have followed the authority of the Propyloeum of Papebrochius
in the Acta SS. in regard of Benedict the Ninth.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 23

Never before had so splendid a church been

raised in England ; it contained every ornament
and decoration wrought by the art of man that
boundless wealth, spent with lavish and pious
hands, could supply. It was so enriched with gold
and silver, that the very walls seemed too confined
to contain the treasures. William of Malmesbury
adds, that the eyes of the beholders were dazzled,
as though what they saw was not a reality, but some
103
thing supernatural. The beams supporting the
shrines were covered with a sheathing of precious
metals ; and in the time of William Rufus, Robert
de Limesey, Bishop of Chester, whose avarice in
duced him to transfer his see to Coventry, in
1094, stripped off from one beam alone as much
silver as was valued at 500 marks.
There cannot be the slightest doubt that the
client of Marye," Lady Godgifu, took
"devout

especial care that the great image of our Blessed

Ladye should not be the most insignificant object

in theabbey church. No description of it remains,
but by analogy, as will be seen under Ely,
Evesham, and Lincoln, in this series, it must have
been fully in accordance with the munificence of
Godgifu, who had "denuded herself" of all her

treasure for the making of the sacred images.

At his own vill of Bromley, in the shire of
Stafford,on the nth of the kalends of October
(September 30), 1057, where the venerable Earl
Leofric, whom the chroniclers describe as having
attained a good old age, was then residing, 104

came
death the bitter,
and so dear a one seized ;

and it may fervently be trusted that,

This noble from earth

Angels carried,
steadfast soul,
into heaven s light.

Where should the Venerable Earl of the Mercians,

105
as the charter of St. Eadward calls him, more

10S Gest. Pont. Ang. p. 309. Rolls Edit.

101 Sax. Chron. ad ann. 1057. Rolls. Edit. And the other chroniclers, ad ann. 1057*
105
Ch. dccccxvi. Cod. Dip. /Evi. Sax. vol. iv. p. 253.
24 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

deservedly repose, in expectation of the day of

doom, than in his beloved monastery at Coventry?
He was buried beneath one of the porches of the
church. 106 I cannot refrain from quoting the words
of Aelred, which form a monument worthy of his
memory :

"Cum omni reverentia spiritusque dulcedine

nominandus, Comes Leofricus, cujus memoria in
benedictione est, cum uxore Godgiva, interpreta-
tionem sui nominis magnifice rerum executione
complente. Cum tali ergo sui lateris socia
. . .

Comes Sanctissimus, in Dei opere semper intentus,

multorum ccenobiorum fundator existit, et sobrie,
et juste, et pie, in omnibus vivens, possessionum
suarum et thesaurorum Christum fecit Hseredem." 107
His peerless wife Godgifu survived her pious
husband. She outlived their high-spirited son
./Elfgar, who had succeeded to his father s earldom
of Mercia, and died in io63. 108 She lived to see her
grandsons, Eadwine become Earl of the Mercians,
and Morkere Earl of the Northumbrians. She
saw the Normans invade
The dear realm
Of Engle land,

and one of her granddaughters, Ealdgyth, already

the widow of Gruffudd, King of North Wales,
become again a widow, when her second husband,
the gallant Harold, the last of our Saxon kings,
fell at Hastings. It is not known where Godgifu

passed the latter years of her life ; probably with

Ealdgyth, the widowed queen of Gruffudd and of

109
Harold, at Chester, or in retirement at Coventry.
110
But before the Survey in 1084 io86, she had

sent her steadfast

soul to Christ,
in God s protection,
spirit holy.

She possessed a rich chaplet of precious gems

which she had strung on a cord, and on which she

we \v. Malms. De Gest. Pont. Rolls Edit.

Angl. c. iv. p. 311.
107 Vit.
S. Eadw. vol. 195. col. 760. Edit. Migne.
108
Sax. Chron. ad ann. 1057.
109
Eadwine and Morkere, on hearing of the death of Harold, came up to London
and sent their sister to Chester (Flor. of Worcester, ad ann. 1066).
110
Domesday, pp. 23 ib, 239b, 28ob.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 25

used to repeat her prayers. On her death-bed, she

desired that this chaplet should be hung round
the neck of our Ladye of Coventry, whom she
had so dearly loved. It was valued at one hundred
marks. 111
She was buried in the other porch of the
church of Coventry, and not far from the image of
our Ladye, to whom her dying thoughts and
affections had been given. 112 It does not
require any stretch of the imagination to believe
that the death-song of the pious Godgifu was
the hymn of St. Ambrose

Maria Mater gratise

Mater misericordiae,
Ab hoste tu nos protege
Et mortis hora suscipe.

Sad isto think that, of the magnificent abbey

it

church of Coventry founded by Leofric and

Godgifu once the glory of England not one
stone now remains. About the year 1670, the
oundations were dug up, and the site was turned
into a bowling alley; and afterwards into a garden,
as was about 1718.
it The new Cathedral of
which was raised by Roger de Clinton
Lichfield,
in 1140, is supposed to have been built on the
model of Coventry, as erected by Leofric and
Godgifu.

NOTE. The memories of the Earl Leofric

and the Countess Godgifu, commonly known as
Lady Godiva, are perpetuated, even to our day, by
a procession held periodically at Coventry, in
commemoration of a fable which is, simply, a dis
grace to English history. If Lady Godiva had ever
ridden through Coventry as she is said to have
done, mention of so remarkable an event would
mos t certainly have been made by some of the
many early writers, but they are all silent on the
subject. The Saxon chronicler, Ingulph, who
knew her, Orderic Vitalis, almost a contemporary,
Henry of Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham, the
Chronicle of Mailros, Florence of Worcester, and
William of Malmesbury, say nothing of it ; whilst

111
W. Malms, ut supra loc. cit.
m Ibid.
26 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the latter, when describing the monastery of

Coventry, would not have omitted to record the
ride, if it had taken place.
The fable is first mentioned by Roger of
Wendover, who flourished in the first half of the
thirteenth centuiy. According to him, the people
of Coventry were to be assembled in the market
place to behold Lady Godgifu ride through the
midst of them, in a state of nudity, which she
did, attended by two soldiers She had luxuriant !

tresses of hair, which she unloosened, and thus

formed a mantle which completely covered her
body. Roger of Wendover adds that she was
seen by no one. 113 Matthew of Westminster, who
wrote his history about fifty years later, mentions
the fable. His work is a copy of Roger Hoveden,
who wrote about 1204, and says nothing of it,
consequently Matthew of Westminster must have
taken it from Roger of Wendover. In his version,
which differs very little from that of Wendover, he
seems to hint that Lady Godgifu was supernaturally
shrouded from mortal eyes, for he says that she,
having ridden through the assembled multitude
a nemine visa, ad virum gaudens, hoc pro mira-
culo habentem
reversa est. And by recording
that thepeople of Coventry had assembled to
see Lady Godiva take her ride, Matthew of
Westminster equally, and most satisfactorily,
disposes of the legendary
"

Peeping Tom, the

tailor of Coventry." 114 But Rapin mentions
him. 115
Ralph Higden,
116
the monk of Chester, who
died in 1363, Henry de Knyghton, 117 and John of
118
Brompton, who were later writers, mention the
ride,on the authority, no doubt, of Roger of
Wendover, and Matthew of Westminster. But
John of Brompton had the wisdom not to
pledge himself to the authenticity of the story;

118 Flores Historiarum. Edit. Coxe, London, 1841, p. 497.

114Flores Historiarum per M. Westmonasteriensem collecti. Francofurti 1601.
Ad ann. 1057, pp. 216, 217.
115
Hist. d Angleterre, vol. i.
p. 452. Edit. La Haye, 1749.
us
Polychronicon Rad. Higden apud Gale, p. 282, ad ann. 1057.
117
Hen. de Knyghton de Eventibus Angliae apud Twisden, col. 2334.
118
Chron. Joan de Brompton apud Twisden, col. 949*
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 27

he openly says,
"

de dicta Comitissa Godiva

legitur"

In an account of payments in the fifth of

Richard the Second, 1381 1382, the altar of our
Blessed Ladye in Coventry Church occurs, with a
119
lamp burning night and day before it.

There was also an image of our Blessed

2.

Ladye in the Tower at Coventry, to which offerings

were made.
In the King s Book of Expenses, August 31
1511: The King s offering at our Ladye in the
tower there, sum not given. 120 . . .

COVERHAM, Offerings were made to our Ladye of Cover-

YORKSHIRE. ham. In the Middleham Household Book of
Richard the Third is this entry, but without
date my Lord Prince
"

: XV.T. for offering to

our Ladye of Gervaulx, Coverham, and Wynsla-
121
dale."

CROME. Offerings were made to our Ladye of Crome.

February 10, 1519 :

"

For my lord s (Henry of Courtenay, Earl of

122
Devon) offering to our Ladye of Crome, 4 </.

CROWNTHORPE, There was a constant light in the church

NORFOLK. before the image of our Blessed Ladye. 123

CROYLAND. Berhtuulf of Mercia, in his grant to the Abbey

of Croyland, dated Friday, March 27, 851, thus
describes this venerable spot: "Hsec est hsere-
ditas Dei, dos secclesise Christi, solum Sanctse
124
Maria."

Richard Barderey, Abbot of Croyland, who

died in 1247, gave a hundred shillings a year from
the fee of his church at Whaplode, so find a light

perpetually burning before the altar of our Blessed

125
Ladye.

119 Mon. Angl. iii.

p. 188.
120
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 1452.
131
Harl. MSS. 433, f. 118.
112
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. iii.
pt. i.
p. 51, n. 152.
123
Blomefield, i.
650.
144
Codex Diplom. ^Evi Sax. ii. p. 41, Ch. cclxv,
128
Mon, Angl. ii. p. 102.
28 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

DONCASTER. In the church of the Carmelites, who were

established here in 1350, was the celebrated image
of our Lady in the White Friars, sometimes called
Our Ladye of Doncaster. Frequent offerings were
made here.
In the Expenses of Henry the Eighth :

"1517, April. Sir Geoff. Wren, clerk of the

closet, for a taper of wax burning before Our
12
Ladye of Doncaster four years, 4 /."

The Earl of Northumberland used yearly to

burn candles here.
The Northumberland Household Book has the
following entry :

"Item.
My lord useth and accustomyth to

paye yerly the fyndynge of a light of wax

for
to birne befor our Ladye in the Whit-Frers of
my lordis foundation at every Mastyme daily
throwout the yere sett before our said Ladye there.
To be paid to the prior of the said hous for the
hole yere for fyndynge of the said light. To be
paid ounes a yere, xiii s. iiii d.
Our Ladye of Doncaster is mentioned in a
letter of Roger Townsend to Lord Cromwell.

DOVER. Our Ladye of Pitye.

A littleto the east of Ardcliffe fort, along the

shore, according to tradition, formerly stood a

small chapel built by a foreign nobleman, who
during a storm was wrecked, and cast ashore at
Dover. In gratitude for his preservation, and in
accordance with the religious custom of those
days, he erected the chapel which was dedicated
to the Blessed Virgin, and called Our Ladye of
Pitye. At the dissolution of the monasteries, this
also shared their fate, and not a stone remains to
tell of its whereabouts. In 1576, at which
time it formed the hut of a fisherman, one of those
fearful gales that sometimes visit the Channel
128
swept away all the remaining vestiges.
In the Expenses of Elizabeth of York :

"1502, March 24. Offering to Our Ladye of

Dover, xx d.

136 137
Letters and Papers &c. Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 1474. P. 338. Edit. 1827
128 139
Dover Guide, printed at the Chronicle office. Privy Expenses, p. 4.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 29

Query. Was this shrine the same as that of

our Ladye in the Rock ?

Henry the Eighth landed at Dover, coming
from Calais, on the i4th November, 1532. In
the Privy Purse Expenses is the following entry :

1532, November. Itm. the xiiii.

"

daye paied
to the King sown hands for his offering to our
13
Ladye in the Rocke at Dover, iiii s. viii ^."

DURHAM. i. Our Ladye of Pitye, in the Galilee. "On

the north syde of the saide Galliley was an alter

called the Ladye of Pitties Alter, with her pictur

carryinge our Saviour on

hir knee as He was
taiken from the Crosse, a very dolorouse aspecte."

The Ladye-Mass was always said at this altar. 131

2. Our Ladye of Boulton.

In the south alley of the lantern stood the
altar of Our Ladye of Boulton. It was the second

of the three altars. Over the which altar was a

"

merveylous lyvely and bewtifull immage of the

picture of our Ladie, so called the Lady of

which picture was made to open with
oultone,

gimmers (two leaves) from her breastes downwards.

And within the said immage was wroughte and
pictured the immage of our Saviour, merveylouse
fineliegilted, houldinge uppe
his handes, and
holding betwixt his handes a fair large CRUCIFIX
OF CHRIST, all of gold, the which crucifix was to
taiken fourthe every Good and every man
Fridaie,

(another MS. says, moncke) did crepe unto it that

was in the church at that day. And ther after yt
was houng upe againe within the said immage.
And every principall daie the said immage
was opened that every man might se pictured
within her the Father, the Sone, and the Holy
Ghost, most curiouslye and fynely gilted. And
both the sides within her (were) verie fynely
vernyshed with grene vernishe and flowers of
goulde, which was a goodly sighte for
all the

behoulders therof. And upon the stone that she

did stand on, in under, was drawen a faire crosse
upon a scutchon, cauled the Neivells cross, the
io p r i v p urse Expenses of Henry VIII. p. 273.
y
131
Monastical Church of Durham, Surtees Society, p. 38.
3O Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

which should signyfye that the Neivells hath borne

;
132
the charges of ytt.

ELTHAM. Mention occurs of an image of our Blessed

Ladye which had been taken at sea, and brought
hither in 1376.
Issue Rolls of the Exchequer :

"50
Edward
the Third, February 5.
In money paid by the hands of Robert Syb-
"

thorpe, one of the Chamberlains of the Exchequer,

for the carriage and safely conducting an image of
the Holy Marye, by John de Ryng-
lately taken
borne, in a certain ship upon the sea, from West
minster to the King s manor at Eltham, delivered
to the Lord the King, by direction of the Treasurer
133
and Chamberlains of the Exchequer, 6 s. 8 ^."

ELY. After the Norman invasion, Hereward, with a

small body of Saxons, fortified the island of Ely,
and held out against the invaders. Irritated at
their stubborn resistance, William the Norman
caused the property of the monks without the
all

island to be sequestrated and divided amongst his

needy followers. Whereupon the monks, consulting

together, made
submission to William, at
their

Warwick, and undertook to pay a fine of one

thousand marks for the restitution of their lands
and liberties. To raise this money, they were
obliged to take all the gold and silver plate and
ornaments of the church, together with the magni
ficent image of our Blessed Ladye, seated in a
throne, with her Divine Son in her arms, which
had been wrought in a marvellous manner, in
silver and in gold. The image had been placed in
the cathedral by Elsi, the second abbot, who died
in 1 01 6 or loi;. 134 Probably it stood in the south
side, which had been consecrated to our Blessed
Ladye in the time of Brithnoth, the first abbot,
who died in 981, after ruling the monastery for
eleven years.
Cnut was a devoted client of our Blessed
Ladye, as is shown by his rich donations to Our

Lady of Chartres, during the lifetime of St.Fulbert,

1>2
Monastical Church of Durham, Surtees Society, p. 26.
333 ]34
Pell Records 201. Anglia Sacra, i.
p. 610.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 31

who was Bishop of Chartres, and an intimate friend

King of England. Fulbert had a
of the constant

desire to do honour to the Blessed Virgin. He

extolled her, saysof Malmesbury, in
William
musical modulations, and one may in some degree
with what an intense desire he was ani
imagine
mated in his veneration of our Ladye by listening
to those canticles of his composition, in which the
music seems to swell with sounds that are echoes
of prayers in heaven.
Cnut was proceeding up the river to celebrate
the festival of our Ladye s Purification at Ely,
where the beautiful seated image of our Blessed
in the church by
Lady had lately been placed
Abbot The voices of the monks so sweetly
Elsi.

our Ladye s praises were wafted across the

singing
water, and, in the heartfelt joy
which he experi
enced, the King burst forth into the
well known
Anglo-Saxon ballad

Merrie sungen the muneches binnen Ely

Tha Cnut ching reu ther by
Roweth Cnites noer the land
And here we thes muneches saeng.

EMMETH, i. Our Blessed Ladye.

NORFOLK. 2. Our Ladye of Pity.
In this church was the chantry of the Blessed
Sir Adam de Hake-
Virgin Marye, founded by
lights and images
of our
beach, and also the
Blessed Ladye, Our Ladye of Pity, and St.
135
Edmund."

EPWORTH, In the chapel of Our Blessed Ladye in the

LINCOLN. Wood, in the Isle of Axholme, there was the
Boniface
Indulgence of Portiuncula, granted by
the a brief dated Rome, the kalends of
Eighth, by
of our Pontificate, 1302.
June, in the eighth year
This chapel was, subsequently, incorporated with
the Priory of the Visitation, founded in the nine
teenth of Richard the Second, by Thomas Mow-
Earl Marshall, and
bray, Earl of Nottingham,
subsequently Duke of Norfolk, K.G., who dedi
cated it to our Blessed Ladye, St. John the Evan
130
gelist, and St. Edward the Confessor.
136
155
General History of Norfolk, p. 486.
Mon. Angl. vi. p. 25.
32 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

2. Our Ladye of Pity.

William Marquess Berkeley founded a per
petual chantry for his soul, at the altar of Our
Ladye of Pity, and endowed it with lands to the
value of ten marks, by his will dated February 5,
137
1491.
ETON. In the Expenses of Elizabeth of York :

"

1502, March 24.

138
Offering to Our Lady of Eton,
"

xxd?."

In the accounts of the Duke of Buckingham :

"

1521, April 14.

"To Our Ladye of Eyton, near Windsor,
139
6s. 8^."

EVESHAM, formerly This was a renowned sanctuary of our Blessed

EOVESHAM. Ladye. Its name perpetuates the vision of our

Blessed Ladye to a poor herdsman called Eoves.

One of the great saints of the Anglo-Saxon
Church was Ecgwin, who was appointed Bishop
of Worcester in 692. The chronicler calls him
the father of the orphans, the supporter of widows,
the just judge of the oppressed, and consoler of
the desolate, whence he became dear to God and
to men. A
few years later he became the victim
to popular outcry and detraction ; he was driven
from his see, and his calumniators sent accu
sations against him to the King, and to Rome.
In 700 he went to the Eternal City, to defend
himself; but, before leaving England, he bound
his feet in iron fetters, and fastened them with a

lock, and threw the key into the Avon. He made

his pilgrimage to Rome in chains, and straightway
on his arrival he cast himself at the tomb of the
Apostles, where he made a long watch in tears
and fervent prayer. In the meanwhile, his attend
ants went in quest of food ; they passed a fish
stall, and bought a fish which had just been taken
in the Tiber/- Lo on cleansing it, they found in
!

its belly the key of Ecg win s chains which he had

cast into the Avon. The fame of this miracle
137 13S
Test. Vetust. 407. Privy Expenses, &c. p. 3.
130
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. iii.
pt. i.
p. 501, n. 1285.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed La dye. 33

soon spread through the city; Ecgwin, who had

been considered a vile and contemptible man,
was now proved to be holy and venerable. 140 He
was most graciously received by Pope Constantine ;
the calumnies were disproved, and he returned to
England, where he was reinstated in his see, and
141
taken into new favour by
King ^Ethelred.
The spot where Ecgwin had cast the key into
the Avon, was called Hethomme; and very
naturally, after the miracle, he desired to obtain
possession of it. The account cannot be given
better than in Ecgwin s own words, which are
recorded in the foundation charter, dictated by
himself. 142
"

In the name of the Saviour Christ our Lord.

I, Ecgwin the humble Bishop of the Wicci, wish
in this charter to make manifest how I first, by

the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, chose this

spot, and built the monastery in Homme (Het
homme) in honour of Almighty God and the
Blessed Virgin Marye. To be brief in my narra
tion, it happened, at one time, that I was fre
quently favoured with visions. Wherefore, by the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, I conceived an
ardent desire in my mind, if God would prosper
my longings, to build a place to the praise of our
Lord and the Blessed Virgin Marye, and all the
elect of God, as well as for my own eternal
reward, before I departed from this mutable life.
After my return, therefore, from Rome, where I
found in the belly of the fish the key which I had
thrown into the river at Hethomme, considering
this to be a holy spot, I wished for it ; and as I
was living in the reign of ^Ethelred, King of the
Mercians, I besought him that he would be
pleased to bestow Hethomme upon me. Wil
he grant my request, for he was a friend
lingly did
of God, and zealous for the salvation of his own
soul. In this place the Blessed Virgin Marye
had appeared to a herdsman by name Eoves (in
consequence of hissanctity I have named it
Eoves-ham), and he related the vision to me.
Immediately, therefore, after fasting and prayer,
I went barefoot to visit the spot, taking with me,

140 141 142

Chron. Abb. de Eves. p. 7, Rolls Edit. Ibid. p. 8. Ibid, p. 9.

D
34 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

sinner as I am, three companions; and I was

privileged to see manifestly the glorious Virgin,

who when she had blessed me with a golden
cross which she carried in her hand, disappeared.
It thus being evident that the spot was favour
able for my intention, I immediately purified it,

and began the work which was designated by

God."

He then enumerates the donations he received

from King ^Ethelred, and Coenred and OrYa, and
many others, amounting to one hundred and twenty
hides of land. He describes how he went again
to Rome in the company of Coenred and Offa,
and how, wishing to obtain the Apostolic confir
mation of his foundation, he had accompanied
them the especial desire of Coenred.
at They
were cordially received by Pope Constantine, to
whom they stated the object of their visit. The
next words must be given in the original
Audivimus optata dignationis ejus responsa,
"

etex condicto quse disposueramus vota et dona

Deo sub testimonio tantas dignitatis offerentes,
donavimus Deo et Sanctis Apostolis ejus et

Romanse, sub manu et dispositione

ecclesia?
Romance papas, ccenobium Eoveshamense quod
extruxeramus multis possessionibus ampliatum :

totumque liberum coram Deo et Sanctis Apostolis

Ejus, et coram Summo Christianitatis pontifice,
ipsum locum concessimus, fecimusque apostolica
et regia corroborari auctoritate donationes et privi-

legia, quse illi loco concesseramus."

The Pope confirmedeverything by a Bull, and

St.Ecgwin continues
Our desires being thus accomplished, and
"

having received the Apostolic blessing, we began

our journey homewards with the greatest joy.
Then, shortly after our return, a Witangemote
was assembled at Alcester, by Apostolic mandate,
and Coenred the King made known to all what we
had done at Rome, to the eternal retribution to
ourselves and our successors. We greeted every
one heartily, and imparted the Apostolic blessing
under the seal of the Pope. The Witan joyfully
confirmed it, verbi et fidei jussione, and Archbishop
Beorhtuuald, in the name of all, drew up a descrip-
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 35

tion of the land of the place and its liberty. Then

the Witan tesolved that the Lord Bishop Wuilfrid
and I should carry the privilege to Evesham.
The day of our arrival there was All Hallows, and
same day Bishop Wuilfrid and I conse
>on the
crated the church which I had built to God and
to St. Marye, and all the elect of God, and we
laid upon the altar the charter of the cxx. hides
and of the liberty of the place, and, in th
presence of all assembled, thus spake we :

Lord God Who dwellest in the heavens,

"

and hast created everything, preserve him who

shall give peace to and preserve this
place, and
this inheritance of God, and this
liberty which we
have offered unto God. Moreover, in the name of
God Almighty, and of all the heavenly virtues, we
command that neither king, nor prince, nor
minister, nor man
of any condition, shall make
less this holy place, nor make
any claim into his
private power; but that this place shall continue,
as we desire, for the use of the flock and the

shepherds of God, and well ordained in the

power of its own abbot, according to the Rule of
God and of Blessed Benedict. But if any one,
quod absit, carried away by the spirit of avarice,
shall decide to turn aside this our injunction,
may
he be judged before the tribunal of God, and.
never be remembered by Christ, and may his,
name be erased for ever from the book of lifej
and may he be bound by the bonds of eternal
punishment in hell, unless he makes amends in
this life. But whosoever shall well preserve these
things, may the Lord God and all His saints

preserve him, and gladden his soul in the land of

the living, and give him eternal rewards, both in
this life and in the next. 143 "

Between the years 941 946, the monks had

been expelled from the abbey by Aldhelm who
introduced canons. In the year 960, the church
which St. Ecgwin had built fell in, but the relics of
the saint were miraculously preserved. During
the vicissitudes of the next fifty-six years the ruins
remained undisturbed. Finally, in 1014, Godwine
. who had twice seized the lands, was expelled by
143
Chron. Abb, de Eves t pp. 1 7- -20.
1) 2
36 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye,

the Abbot ^Elfward, and fell two years later in the

battle of Assandun.
Some years afterwards the noble Earl of
Mercia, Leofric, and his incomparable Countess
Godgifu, came forward with their usual munifi
cence, and built a church for the abbey.
"

They
greatly loved and honoured this abbey," says the
chronicler, and built a fine church in honour of
"

the Holy Trinity, in which they caused to be

placed a large crucifix (crucem non modicam) with
an image of Marye the holy Mother of God, and
of St. John the Evangelist, beautifully wrought of
gold and silver ; they also gave a green chasuble,,
and a smaller black cope, and many other precious,
144
ornaments."

The charter of Leofric sets forth that he gives-,

the estate (terram) called Heamtun to the mo
nastery of Evesham, and to the church, which he
and Godgifu his wife had built there, in honour of
the Holy and Undivided Trinity, and for the good
of their own souls. He also adds that Heamtun
had belonged to his brother Northman, and that
he himself had received it in gift from Cnut.
The charter is without date, but Leofric cites as a
witness Brichtegus, Bishop of Worcester, 1033
145
I038.
If this was the abbey church, and there seems
to be no reason to doubt it, from the wording of
the charter, it did not stand many years ; it wag
gradually pulled down by Abbot Walter, 1077.
1086 ; 146 the chronicler remarking that it was
one of the finest churches in England ; as would
naturally be the case, since Leofric and Godgifu
had built it. To raise the necessary funds for the
rebuilding of their church, two of the monks
travelled through England with the relics of
St. Ecgwin. It is to this new church that the
description in the Revelation to the Monk of
Evesham in
1196 applies.
147

Sothely there were in thys same chyrche iii.

"

or iiii. ymagys of our blessyd lady Sent

Marye
hauyng in her lappys the ymage of our Sauyur
144
Chron. Abb. de Eves. p. 84.
145
Cod. Dipl. ^Evi Sax. vol. iv. p. 272, ch. dccccxxxviii.
146 14 ?
Chron. Abb. de Eves. p. 55. Ibid. 1. c.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 37

ihesu cryste yn fourme of a lytyl babe, and they

were sette at euery auter on right well peynted
and feyre arayed wyth golde and diuers other
colours, the whyche schewyd to the people that

behylde hym grete deuocyon. And before euery

ymage hynge a lampe, the whyche, after the
custome of that same chyrche, were wonte to be
lyghted at euery pryncypale feste thorowe alle the
yere, bothe by nyghte and by daye enduryng fro
the fyrst ensonge unto the second ensonge afore
the forseyde ymages of oure blessed lady Seynte

Marye. And alsoo thylke lampys lyghtnyd alle the

148
chyrche abowte."
According to ancient custom, the sacristan
had to supply one lamp by day, and one cres
149
set, to burn from night till morn, before our

Ladye s altar in the crypt. By the new regulations,

one wax light and one lamp are to burn there
continually, and one cresset by night, as formerly.
Incense was, moreover, to be supplied daily at
Mass. At the celebration of the Marye-Mass
twenty-four wax lights were to burn daily. Of
these the sacristan finds six, the seneschal of
Evesham one, and the altar-keeper the rest. At
the same Mass thirty-three lamps were to be
lighted up, which lamps the altar-keeper is to
150
supply.
Thomas Marleberge, or Marlbarew, prior of
Evesham, 1218 1229, bought two shops in the
centre of the high street, of Richard, the son of
Hugh of Warwick, and gave them to the support
of the lights of our Ladye in the crypt. Whilst
he was sacristan he arranged with the Chapter
so that the lamps before the high altar and the
altar of our Ladye in the crypt should be con
tinually burning.
151
He also, when prior, bought
of Adam Peterel a piece of land, the half of
which he devoted to alms, and the other half
to the lights of our Ladye in the crypt 152
148
The Revelation to the Monk of Eves ha in, 1196, p. 195. Edited by Edward
Arber, F.R.G.S. London, 1869.
149 Cressets were torches fixed on poles.
150 and Borough of Eveshani,
History and Antiquities of the Abbey p. 103. By
W.Tindal, M.A. Evesham, 1794.
351
Chron. Abb. de Eves. p. 267.
152
Ibid, 270.
38 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

William Boys, abbot 1345 1367, endowed the

keeper of the chapel of our Ladye in the crypt
with 4/., the proceeds of divers tenements acquired
by him at Stowe, Donington, and other places. 15 ^
He died on the 6th June, 1367, and was buried
154
by Ludovic, Bishop of Hereford, before the
Image of the Glorious Virgin in the nave. He
caused to be cast the two great bells, named
Marye and Ecgwin, which were baptized by
Richard, Bishop of Nazareth. They bore the
155
following inscriptions
O pater Egwyne, tibi consono nocte dieque ! ) Will.
Me fugiant digne tonitrua mala fulgura qusequej Boys
EGWYN. nos
Me sonante, pia succurre Virgo Maria ! > fieri

Ecclesire genti discedant fulgura venti. ) fecit.

MARIA.

The two greater bells, Jesus and Gloriosa,

had been supplied by Adam, who was abbot
1 1 60 1191. They were thus inscribed

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.

JESUS.
Ave !
gloriosa virginum regina,
Vitis generosa, vitre medicina. GLORIOSA.

There was also an image of our Blessed Ladye

adjoining the chapel called the Char-
commonly
156
nelhous; and William
de Chiriton, abbot
1316 1344, built the noble abbey gate, which
was crenellated, and which he adorned with stone
statues of our Blessed Ladye and St. Ecgwin.

EYE, i. Here was an altar of our Blessed Ladye,

SUFFOLK. and a her honour; there was also her
gild in
image painted with gold at the charge of Joan
Busby. In 1473, John Yestes of Eye bequeathed
to the altar of the Blessed Marye ever
Virgin
viii marcs. 157

2. Our
Ladye de Populo.
At the east end of the north chancel aisle is
a small chapel, now the vestry. This is probably
the chapel of Sir John his will
Porter, who, by
dated August 8, 1501, desires that his executors
153 154
Chron. Abb. de Eves. p. 298. Ibid. 299. 355
Ibid. 297. 1BS
Ibid. 300,
157
Proceedings of the Su$olk Archaological Institute, vol. ii.
p. 140.
 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye. 39

build, as they receive his debts and sell his house,

a chapel in the worship of Sancta Maria de
158
Populo, within the churchyard of Eye.
This may have been a copy of the miraculous
painting of Sancta Maria de Populo at Rome.

FAKENH AM, NORFOLK. An image of Saint Marye de la Pity. 159

FERNYHALGH, The following traditional account of Ladywell

LANCASHIRE. was given in 1723 by Mr. Christopher Tootell,
of Fernyhalgh.
"A and wealthy merchant, in great
virtuous
distress upon the Irish sea, had recourse for
safety to Him Whom the winds and the sea
obey, and made a vow, in case he escaped the
danger, to acknowledge the favour of his preser
vation by some remarkable work of piety. After
this, the storm began to cease, and a favourable
gale wafted his ship unto the coast of Lancashire,
where, whilst he landed, he thankfully reflected
on his merciful deliverance, and was in pain to
know by what pious work vow might be
his

acceptably fulfilled, a miraculous voice admo

nished him to seek a place called Fernyhalgh,
and there to build a chapel where he should
find a crab-tree bearing fruit without cores, and
under it a spring. In compliance with this direc
tion, he spared no pains in travelling about and
seeking for the place called Fernyhalgh ; but
all in vain, until at last he came to Preston,

where, having taken up his lodgings late at night,

the housemaid came in from milking, and excused
her late return, occasioned by loss of time in
seeking and following the strayed cow as far as
Fernyhalgh. This accidental notice of the place
he sought for revived the weary traveller, and
sent him
full of joy to take his rest. In the
morning a guide conducted him to Fernyhalgh,
where he continued his search until he found the
crab tree and the spring foretold him, as also an
unexpected, and, until then, undiscovered image
of the Blessed Virgin Marye, which occasioned
the spring to be called our Ladye s Well, and the
JDS
Proceedings of the Suffolk Archccological Institute, vol. ii.
p. 140.
15a
Index. Mon. Dioc. Norv. p. 72.
4o Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

chapel he built by it to be dedicated in her

name to God s honour and service, and likewise
to be called Our Ladye s Chapel in Fernyhalgh.
But after the suppression of chantries and chapels
the chapel was pulled down. Yet ancient . . .

neighbours have, and do affirm, that in their youth

its platform and rubbish were sufficiently discern-

able in the hollow place on the west side of the

footway, in the meadow adjoining to the walk
; and from
above the well its flourishing condition

to this present day, Simpson s house and the close

belonging to it have been, and are called and

known by the name of the Chapel House, Chapel
Wood, Meadows, Mass, &c., as it is manifest in
ancient deeds, conveyance, and common
late

speech. Nevertheless, the ancient devotion of

the neighbouring Catholics did not fail with the
old chapel, but survived its ruins, and continued
in their constant assemblies and praying together
at the well on Sundays and Holidays, and espe

ciallyon feasts of our Ladye, even in the severest

times of persecution. Of these devotees, several
have piously believed and thankfully acknowledged
special benefit and help received, by means of
their frequent visiting and constant prayer at Our

Ladye s Well."

In 1684-5, a new chapel or house of prayer

was built. This was principally the work of
Mr. Cuthbert Hesketh, of White Hill, in Goose-
nargh, who for sixteen years paid the rent of
the house, and in 1701 paid to Mr.Tootell, the
pastor, also the fine or purchase-money for the
ground on which it stood. Mr. Tootell was a
near relative of Mr. Hesketh. 160
It was at Fernyhalgh, near the chapel and
Ladye Well, that the celebrated Dame Alice,
otherwise Alice
Harrison, opened her school,
which soon was filled with children from the
neighbourhood, from Preston, the Fylde, Liver
pool, Manchester, London, and all other parts
of England, and she reckoned from one to two
hundred pupils. Every day she took the Catholic
children to chapel, and always stopped to say a
161
Pater, Ave, and Credo at Our Ladye s Well.
160
Catholic Magazine and Review, 1832, vol. ii., pp. 481-82.
1G1
Ibid,
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 41

In an article in the Preston chronicle by

"Atticus," quoted in the Weekly Register of July

23, 1870, the writer says
:

"

When the old chapel was originally erected

at is not known; it is mentioned as
Fernyhalgh
far back as 1448 in a document in the Office of
the Duchy of Lancaster."

BOSTON, In regard to our Ladye of Foston, there exists

YORKSHIRE. a very remarkable piece of evidence, which shows
that the bishops of the Church were ever ready
indiscreet devo
then, as they are now, to repress
tion in regard of certain localities until a searching

investigation had been made.

It is a mandate of William Grenefeld, Arch
bishop of York, addressed to the Dean of

Pickering, against undue reverence (adoratw] paid

to the Image of the Blessed Virgin Marye in the

parish church of Foston

"William, permission Arch
by the divine
dear son our
bishop of York, Primate, to our
Dean of Pykering, health, &c. . . .

Sane nuper ad aures nostras pervenit quod

"

ad quandam imaginem bealse Virginis in Ecclesia

noviter collocatam, magnus
parochiali de Foston
simplicium est concursus, ac si in eadem plus

quam in aliis similibus imaginibus aliquid numinis

sicque simplices ex
concursu hujus-
appareret :

modi, in idolatriam et erroris devium de facili

trahi possent ; fueruntque super imagine prsedicta
inter religiosos viros . . .
priorem et conventum
de Bridelington, et Johannam relictam Thomae de
Poyngton lites et contentiones varise prius motse,
ac periculosi conflictus habiti, et alia mala quam-
successura fore in
plurima, quibus etiam pejora
posterum formidantur, nisi eis opportunis remediis
occurrabatur.
"Volentes igitur,
ut teneamur, hujusmodi
tarn animarum quam corporum periculosis dis-
tibi firmiter
pendiis, quatenus possumus obviare,
tarn in dicta
injungimus et mandamus, quatenus
ecclesia de Foston, quam in aliis ecclesiis colle-

et parochialibus infra dictum decanatum

giatis
ubilibet constitutis, omnibus parochianis nostris,

tarn clericis quam laicis, singulis diebus dominicis,

42 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

et festivis, publice et in genere, auctoritate nostra

inhibeas, sed facias inhiberi, ne quis de cetero pro

adoration e clictse imaginis ad prsefatam ecclesiam,
vel alibi, ubi earn transferri contigerit, accedat, vel

ipsius imaginis prastextu, oblationes in pecunia,

seu rebus aliis quibuscumque facere prsesumat,
donee de causis, rationibus, et motivis, ex quibus
ad eandem imaginem hujusmodi habitus est con-
cursus, inquisitionem fieri fecimus diligentem, sub
pcena excommunicationis majoris, et aliis poenis
et districtionibus canonicis, quas in contrarium
facientes, pro loco et tempore curabimus exercere.
Valete.
"

Datum apud Burton juxta Beverl. 5 id Apr.,

have as yet found no traces of the result of

I

inquiry. Neither have I met with any bequest to

our Ladye of Foston in the Yorkshire wills.

GARBOLDESHAM, William Keye, in his will dated May i, 153!)

NORFOLK. says :

"

Itm. I gif half an acr of Lond lying in

Lopham Furlong to find yerely evermore v.

Gawdyes Brennyng before our Ladye in the

Chancel of St. John the Baptist at every antiphon ;

of our Ladye and at every Feste of our Ladye,

at Maesse of the same Feste evermore." 161

NOTE. Candles which were burnt in honour

of the five joys of our Ladye were sometimes
called gawdys,

GISBRO . William Ecopp, Rector of Heslerton, in his

will dated September 6, 1472, says :

"Hem. I will that a pilgrim, or some pilgrims,

be sent immediately after my on pilgrimage
burial
for me to ... Our Ladye of Walsingham . . .

Our Ladye of Lincoln, Our Ladye of Doncaster,

Our Ladye of Scardeburgh, Our Ladye of Gys-
burgh, Our Ladye of Jesmount, Our Ladye of
Carlell and shall offer to each iihV." 162
. . .

To this will the learned editor, the Rev. James

Raine, M.A., has appended the following note :

I am not aware of the existence of any

"

101
Blomefield, i. 182.
162
Testamenta Eboracensia. Surtces Society, vol. iii. p. 201.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 43

other document from which we can ascertain that

some of these shrines were places of fame. This

passage therefore is of singular interest."

GLASTONBURY. This is the most ancient and venerable sanc

in England. In its
tuary of our Blessed Ladye
form it was a little oratory built of
original
wreathed twigs, and said, traditionally, to have
been the work of St. Joseph of Arimathea. It

isneedless here to examine the various arguments

on the question,the more especially since the
164 have
Bollandists 163 and Tillemont proved that
Joseph of Arimathea never was
St. at Glastonbury.

About two centuries later the oratory was rebuilt

of stone, and a larger one added to it. The
Patrick the of
apocryphal charter of St. elder,

given by William of
165
the year 43o, which is

Malmesbury, describes it as holy and ancient

"a

spot, chosen and sanctified by

God in honour
of the Immaculate Virgin Marye, Mother of God ;"

and it also mentions that St. Patrick had been

shown the Phaganus and Diru-
writings of SS.

vianus, which church had been

state that the

divinely consecrated by our Lord Himself in

honour of His Blessed Mother.
In 530, after the Synod of Victory, St. David

of Menevia, accompanied by seven of his suffra

came to Glastonbury, invited thither by

gans,
the sanctity of the place. He formed, says
166 the resolution of
William of Malmesbury,
the ancient church there
solemnly consecrating
erected in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mother
of our Lord. therefore, provided all
Having,
the things necessary for the performance of that
sacred ceremony, on the night immediately pre
ceding the intended dedication, he, as nature
to sleep, in which our Lord
required, yielded
to him, and demanded of him
Jesus appeared
the reason of his coming thither. This, without

hesitation, St. David declared to

Him. But our
Lord presently turned him from his resolution

163
AA. SS. vii. p. 509 ad 17 Mart.
164 Memoires Ecclesiastiques, vol. i. p. 2IO.
165
De Antiq. Glaston. Eccl. 300. Ed. Gale.
p.
See also Todd, St. Patrick^

note.
Apostle of Ireland, Dublin, 1864, p. 484.
166
Ibid, p. 299.
44 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

of dedicating the church, saying to him, "That

must not be done." And taking the bishop s
hand, He told him that many years ago He
Himself had dedicated it to the honour of His
Mother, and therefore, that this holy ceremony
ought not to be profaned by any man s repeating
it. And having said this, with His finger He
pierced through the Bishop s hand, telling him
that this should be a sign that what He Himself
had already anticipated ought not to be again
renewed. And, withal, He promised Him that
the next day, when, in reciting the canon of the
Mass, he was to pronounce those words, Per
ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso, he should have restored
the integrity and soundness of his hand. The
terror of this vision quickly drove sleep from the
Bishop eyes, whereupon, with great earnestness,
s

he examined whether that were indeed real which

our Lord seemed to have done to him. And
having found it so, he wondered at it, and
expected (i.e., awaited) what would be the issue.
The next day all that were present with admira
tion saw and touched the prodigious wound.

Hereupon all the preparation for the consecra

tioncame to nothing, and the miracle divinely
wrought, being made known publicly to all the
hearers, increased their admiration. And, in con
clusion, when Mass was celebrated, the Bishop s
hand was restored to its former soundness. 167
St. David added on a chapel to the east side

of the church, which he consecrated to the

honour of our Blessed Ladye, and adorned the
altar with a sapphire of inestimable value, which
was called the Great Sapphire of Glastonbury. 168
From the description given, it would appear
that this sapphire formed a super-altare. This
precious gem was subsequently hidden for secu
rity s sake and its existence forgotten. It was

discovered by the Abbot, Henry Svvansey, who

had it magnificently set in gold and silver, and
surrounded by precious stones, it is "as now tobe
169
seen/ adds William of Malmesbury. Its fate is

167
Church History of Brittany. By R. F. S. Cressy, O.S.B., 1668, bk. ii. c. vi.

ad ann. 63.
168
Spelman, Concilia , i. 19
169
Ut sup. pp. 305-6,
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 45

recorded. On the isth May, 1539, "delyvered

unto the King s maiesty a super-altare, garnished

with silver and gilte and parte golde, called the
170
Great Saphire of Glasconberye."
Twelve years later, in 542, the good King
Arthur, nephew to St. David, being mortally
wounded in the battle of Camlan, was carried
to Glastonbury that he might prepare himself
more perfectly, under the protection of our
Blessed Lady, for his departure out of this world
for life eternal. In 1189 Abbot Swansey wrote
his epitaph

Hie jacet Arthurus, Flos regum,

Gloria regni

Quern morum probitas commendat laudi perenni.

William of Malmesbury particularly notices

that kings and the leading men of the land
so
eagerly sought to be buried at Glastonbury,
that they might await the day of doom under
171
the protection of our Blessed Ladye; and he
gives a list of many who were buried here.
In 708, Ine, of the West Saxons, rebuilt the
monastery and the old abbey church, when he
gave a charter of privileges, which he reverently
172
laid upon the altar. In 725 he gave his great
charter of privileges, from which I shall only

quote the commencement of the grant.

"Therefore I, Ine, relying on my royal dignity
from the Lord, with the advice of Sexburga the
queen and the licence of Beorhtuuald, Archbishop
of Canterbury, and of all his suffragans, and also
the exhortation of the subreguli, Baldred and
./Ethelhard, grant ... to the ancient church
situateon the spot called Glasteia, which the
High and Chief Pastor made known to
Priest
Blessed David by many and unheard-of miracles,
that of old He had, with the service of the
Angels, consecrated to Himself and the ever
Virgin Marye," &c.
This is early evidence of the popular opinion
in regard to Glastonbury, and of the ancient
tradition of its divine consecration. The charter,

however, is marked by Kemble as doubtful.

170
Mon. Angl. i.
p. 65.
m W. Malmesbury, ut supra 306.
172
Cod. Dip. /Evi Sax. vol. i. p. 85, ch. Ixxiii.
46 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Jne also built the "

Silver Chapel," as it is

called, out of his love for God and His Mother

the Blessed Virgin Marye. The value of the
gifts, at our present standard, amounts to something

prodigious. To
the construction of the chapel he
gave 2,640 of silver; 26415$. of gold for the
Ibs.

altar; xolbs. of gold for a chalice and paten;

8 Ibs. and 20 mancases of gold for a censer, or
thurible; 12^ Ibs. of
candlesticks; silver for
20 Ibs. and 60 mancases of gold for covers for the
Gospels ; 1 7 Ibs. of gold for vases for the altar i.e.,
cruets, &c. 8 Ibs. of gold for pelves /. e., shallow
;

173
basins 20
Ibs. of silver for a
; holy water stoup ;
and 175 Ibs. of silver and 38 Ibs. of gold for
images of our Lord and our Blessed Ladye and
the Twelve Apostles. 174
The next principal benefactor to Glastonbury
was Eadgar, surnamed the Peaceable. The learned
Benedictine writer, Bucelin, states, 175 that Eadgar
on the altar of our Blessed Ladye,
laid his sceptre
and consecrated his kingdom to her ; and this state
ment has misled many writers. I give a portion
of Eadgar s great charter of Privilege, given in
the year 971 ; and William of Malmesbury proves
that the King laid his sceptre on the altar of our
Blessed Ladye as an act of investiture, and in
accordance with the common usage of the time.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
"

Although the decrees of Pontiffs and the words

of priests are like unto the foundations of moun
tains that are fixed down by indissoluble ligatures,
still
frequently occurs amidst the storms and
it

tempests of worldly affairs that the religion of

the Holy Church of God is disputed and broken
by the polluted touch of reprobate men. There
fore it is that we have determined, and as a matter
that is certain to be useful to succeeding genera
which have been defined
tions, that those points
by salutary counsel, and by common consent,
should be affirmed and corroborated by these our
letters. Wherefore it seemsfitting that the Church
of the most Blessed Mother of God, and ever
173
Vide Journal of Royal Archaological Institute, vol. x. p. 236, note.
1:4
W.
Malmesbury, ut supra, 311.
175
Chronicon Beneclictino-Marianum, p. 90, ad ann. 944.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 47

Virgin Marye of Glastonbury, as it has, from

ancient times, obtained the principal dignity in
this our kingdom, so should it be honoured by
176
us with singular and especial privilege."
some
William of Malmesbury then continues :

When by the common consent, as

"

therefore,
has been said, of his prelates, abbots, and nobles,
he determined to grant these privileges to the
place aforesaid, he laid his own lituus /. e., staff

or sceptre beautifully formed of ivory, and

adorned with gold, upon the altar of the holy
Mother of God, and by that donation confirmed
to the same holy Mother of God, and her monks,
to be possessed for ever. Soon after he caused
this sceptre to be cut in two in his presence, that

no future abbot might give or sell it to any one,

commanding one portion of it to be kept on the

spot for a testimony of the aforesaid
donation."

then sent the charter to Pope John

Eadgar
the Thirteenth.
"The Pope, kindly receiving the embassy,
with the assenting voice of the Roman Council,
confirmed what had already been done, by writing
an apostolic injunction, terribly hurling on the
violators of them, should any be so daring, the
vengeance of a perpetual curse. This confirma
tion, therefore, of the aforesaid Pope, directed to
the same place, King Eadgar, of worthy memory,
laid upon the altar of the holy Mother of God,
for a Perpetual Remembrance, commanding it to
be carefully kept in future for the information of
177
posterity."

During the reign of Henry the Second the

church was burnt to the ground, and he deter
mined that it should be rebuilt by himself or his
heirs more magnificently than ever, as he says
in his charter. He then confirms to the aforesaid
church, which is called by some the Mother of
Saints, and by others the Tomb of Saints, and
which, built by the very disciples of our Lord,
was first of all dedicated by our Lord Himself
all the
according to venerable ancient authority
privileges granted by his predecessors, William the
170
Cod. Dipl. zEvi Sax. t. ii. p. 67, ch. dlxvii.
177
De Gest. Reg. Angl. 1. ii. c. viii. p. 57. ed. 1601.
48 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

First and William the Second, and Henry, his

grandfather, and by the more ancient kings,

Eadgar, the father of St. Eadward, and Alfred,
Centwine, Baldred, Ine, the Noble Arthur, and
many other ancient kings, as well as King
Cenwalh, a pagan. And these privileges he had
caused to be read in his presence. 178
Thus there is a long series of regal evidence
showing the profound veneration in which the
Church of Our Blessed Ladye of Glastonbury was
held; and the devotion of our Catholic kings to
the great Mother of God.
William of Malmesbury makes special mention
of an image of our Blessed Ladye in the church.
"Here,"
he says, an image of the Blessed
"is

Virgin Marye. When the great fire consumed

all the altar cloths and ornaments, it neither
touched the statue, nor the veil which was on its
head. Nevertheless, the fire caused several
blisters to rise on its face, as if on a living man,
which long remained there, a proof to the
179
beholders of the divine power."

Abbot Adam
Sodbury, or Solbury, or de
Sobbury, 1322 1335, adorned the high altar with
a large image of our Blessed Ladye, which was
placed in a tabernacle of excellent workman
180
ship.
Here was also a chapel of Our Ladye of
Loretto. Leland says :

"

Bere coming from his Embassadrie out of

Italic, made a chapelle of Our Ladye de Loretta,
joining the north side of the body of the
181
chirche."

Abbot Richard Beere, who was installed on

the 2oth of January, 1493, built the lodgings for
secular priests and the clerks of our Blessed

Ladye at Glastonbury. He was sent to Italy

as ambassador in the twenty-second of Henry
the Seventh, 1506 1507. The chapel of
Loretto was no doubt a fac simile of the Holy
House.
178
\yjlki nSj Concilia, t. i.
p. 489.
179 De Antiq. Glast. Eccl. 305.
180
Joh. Glaston. Historia. Ed. Hearne, p. 263.
181
Itin. v. iii.
p. 104.
 Old English Devotion to oitr Blessed Ladye. 49

GLOUCESTER* In 1306 John de Gamages, Abbot of Glou

cester gave to the churchan ivory image of our
Blessed Ladye. 182
Under the year 1136, it is recorded in the
history that Walter de Lacy having come to the
church very early in the morning, devoutly assisted
183
at the Marye-Mass.

GORLESTON. Our Ladye.

About 1650, the Earl of Manchester, when
commanding the associated counties for the
Parliament, issued a commission under which
Francis Jessope of Beccles removed from Lowe-
stoft Church all inscriptions in brass commencing
with the usual Orate pro anima, &c. Jessope has
thus recorded his sacrilegious doings at Gorleston
Church, which lies on the opposite side of the
river to Great Yarmouth :

In the chancel, as it is called, we took up

"

twenty brazen superstitious inscriptions, ora pro

broke twelve apostles carved in wood,
nobis, &c.,
and cherubims, and a lamb with a cross, and
took up four superstitious inscriptions in brass
in the North chancel, ./?./?// Dei miserere w,&c.,
broke in pieces the rails, and broke down twenty-
two Popish pictures of angels and saints. We did
deface the font and a cross on the font, and took
up a brass inscription there with Cujus anima
propitietur Dens; and Pray for ye soule, &c., in
English. We took up thirteen superstitious brasses.
Ordered Moses with his rod and Aaron with his
mitre to be taken down. Ordered eighteen angels
off the roof, and cherubims to be taken down,
and nineteen pictures on the windows. The organ
I brake, and we brake seven Popish pictures on

the chancel window one of Christ, another of

St. Andrew, another of St. James, &c. We ordered
the steps to be levelled by the parson of the
town, and brake the Popish inscription, "My

Flesh is meat indeed, and Blood is drinkMy

indeed" I gave orders to break in pieces the

carved work, which I have seen done. There

were six superstitious pictures, one crucifix, and
18a
Hist, et Cartular. Monast. S. Petri Gloucestrke, vol. i.
p. 40. Rolls Edit.
18a
Ibid. p. 16.
50 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the Virgin Marye with the Infant Jesus in her

arms, and Christ lying in a manger, and the three
Kings coming to Christ with presents, and three
bishops with their mitres and crosier staffs, and
eighteen Jesuses written in capital letters, which
we gave orders to do out. A picture of St. George,
and many others which I remember not, with
divers pictures in the window, which we could
not reach, neither would they help us to raise
ladders ; so we left a warrant with a constable
to do it in fourteen days. We brake down a pot
of holy water, St. Andrew with his cross, and
St. Catherine with her wheel, and we took down

the cover of the font, and the four Evangelists,

and a triangle for the Trinity, a superstitious
picture of St. Peter and his keys, an eagle and a
184
lion with wings."

GRISTON, Here were four gilds, one of which was the

NORFOLK. gild of our Blessed Ladye, and there was a light
185
called St. Marye s light.

HALES OWEN, Sir William Lyttleton, knight, who died in

SALOP. December, 1507, by his will desires :

My body to be buried before the image of

"

the Blessed Virgin in the monastery of Hales

Owen, near the place and grave where my first
186
wife lieth."

HEIGHAM POTTER, Our Ladye of Grace.

1.

or Our Ladye of Pity.

2.

POTTER HEIGHAM. Here in the Church of St. Nicholas were the

lights of Our Ladye of Grace, and Our Ladye of
187
Pity.
In August, 1517, Wolsey writes to the King
that he proposes to start for Walsingham on

Monday next, and from thence to Our Ladye of

188
Grace, in fulfilment of his vow.

HEMINGBOROUGH, Was originally a parish church, and was erected

YORKSHIRE. into a college by royal license, October 26, 1426,
189
5 Henry VI.
184
Manship, History of Great Yarmouth, Palmer s continuation, pp. 125-6, note.
185 18C 187
Blomfield, i.
570. Test. Vetust. p. 467. Gen. Hist, of Norfolk, p. 728.
183 and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol.
Letters ii.
p. 1538, n. 38.
18U
Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 442.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 5 r

William de Hemyngburg, by his will dated

October 6, 1409, and proved in January, 1410,
orders his body to be laid before the image of
Our Ladye of Pity. 190
Katherine, widow of Sir John Hastings, knight,
by her will dated February 25, 1506-7, bequeaths:
"

To Our Ladye of Hymmyngburgh a piece of

191
cremel and a lace of gold of Venys sett wt perl."

HENLEY. The will of John Andrew of Henley-on-

Thames, in 1503, contains this bequest :

Also I bequeath to our Ladye s coat in the

"

chapel of Henley, a gold ring

which was William
192
Wylde s, to hang on the said coat."

Leland "There is a suburbe without

HEREFORD. says,

Wye Gate, and therein is a chapell of our Ladye m

of Alingtre prope funas.
Desirous of obtaining some clue to the mean
I wrote to the Very Rev. Prior
ing of Alingtre,
of St. Michael s, Hereford, Dom P. W. Raynal,
O.S.B.,who most obligingly sent me the following
very interesting information
:

us the
"The quotation from Leland gives
of the chapel of our Blessed
precise locality
may be that situation will afford
Lady, and it its

some clue to its devotional uses.

in a
of Alingtre is said to be
Our Lady
"

suburb beyond Wye Gate, and is denoted as

being prope fureas,

"

A reference to Ducange (v. Furca) will show

you that the chapel of our Blessed Lady stood

near The Gallows (prope furcas).
"To this clay there is a spot about half a

mile from where the Wye-Bridge Gate stood,

which is called The Gallows-Tump. The place
is referred to in the Ada SS. October 2, n. 93

573. Edit. V. Palme).

(p.
"

The late Mr. B. Phillipps of Longworth left

us a collection of valuable MSS., which contain

the material for a history of Herefordshire. The
latter was begun by Duncumb, but still needs

iw Burton, Mon. Ebor. p. 448.

m Test. Ebor. vol. iii. p. 275.
arid Queries, 3 ser. vol.
125, quoted in Notes p. 137-
iii.
102
History of Henley, p.
3
]
Itin. iv. pt. ii. p. 82.
E 2
52 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

completing. Mr. Phillipps greatly increased the

value of the collection by his labours in the
pedigrees of county families, and by transcribing
many parish registers now lost.
"A London barrister named Hill first started
this collection in the seventeenth century.
"Duncumb (vol. i. p. 374) says Two small
chapels stood also in this suburb; the site of
one is unknown, but that of the latter was on
the branch of the suburb which leads towards
Ross. Each had a garden, and a small bell of
the value of two shillings and eight pence.
"Hill, from whose MS. the above is taken,
adds that One of the chapells stood, as Silas
Taylor was informed, upon a bank on the left
hand on the east side of Blackmeston, on the
way to the Callowe.
"

This extract he gives from the MS. of Silas

Taylor, which is,
I believe, amongst the Harleian

MSS.
"The above information seems to me to be
a clue to the place where our Lady of Alingtre
stood. Near The Gallows Tump there is a bank
which answers to the description given by the
Hereford people to Silas Taylor, and the singular
conformation of the roads indicates that at one
time some building must have stood on that
spot. In all probability, our Blessed Lady of
Alingtre was a chapel used for the immediate
preparation for death by those who were led to
execution. May be, that it was also used as a
kind of mortuary chapel. .

"Silas
Taylor lived in the seventeenth cen
tury, just a hundred years after the desecration
of the chapel, and his entry would lead us to

conjecture that in his time the building had

disappeared. Even its site seems to have been
known but to the old folks, as is
always the
case with ancient buildings which disappear.
One query there is which I wish to submit
"

to you. Is the title Alingtre in any way con

nected with the Gallows which stood hard by
the chapel?
"Ailing Tree, or Tree of Pain. There is no
place called Ailing in Herefordshire.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 53

could scarcely be from a tree where the

"

It

culprits sat to
take a drink of ale before being

suspended We learn from the Gospel the very

!

ancient practice of giving drink to those led to

execution.
"

P. W. RAYNAL, O.S.B."

The a curious one. It

subject of Gallows is

remark that the Rotiili

is sufficient, however, to
Hundredorum mention many places in the king
dom which had the right to gallows, and that
theywere generally at a distance from the town
to which they belonged. 194
Queen Maud, consort to Henry I., who died
in i n 8, built a hospital for lepers in St. Giles s,

which she endowed. Here was a gild or brother

hood of our Blessed Ladye, Corpus Christi, and
St. Giles. And at this hospital it became a custom
to present the malefactors carried to execution at

Tyburn with a great bowl of ale, to drink of it

as they pleased for their last refreshment in this
1
life.

HERLING (EAST) In 1510, Robert Banham purchased of William

NORFOLK. Banham a messuage and six acres of land in East
Herling, held of the manor of
East Herling,

by a to find
8</. a wax candle
year, burning before
in that
the Image of the Blessed Virgin Marye
church. 190

HERLING C. 1445. William Berdewelle leaves los. to

(WEST).
our Ladye at West Herling and los. to our Ladye
197
in Thetford.

HEVORE. Brunby, Knight, evidently fell in

Sir John cle

the battle Of him nothing is

of Shrewsbury.
known. By his will, dated June 23, and proved
October n, MQ3, 198 he left four pounds of wax
for four candles to burn before the Image of
the Blessed Virgin Marye in the church of
Hevore.

1U4
History of Bi adfoni, Ly John James ; p. 51. London, 1841.
Entick, Hist, and Surrey of London, 1766,
J 95 vol. i. p. 93.
iw Blomefield i. 225. Ibid. i. 204.
.
w
108 Test. Ebor. vol. i.
p. 303.
54 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

HEXTILDESHAM, Robert Cooke, of Hextildesham, in his will,

or HEXHAM. dated Friday before the feast of the Annunciation,
1396, leaves to the light of our Blessed Ladye in
199
her church outside the abbey, ij-.

HILBURY (Island), Hilbre

i.e., St. Hildeburga s ea, or isle.
,

off CHESHIRE. Leland describes this island thus It :

"

is

about a mile in cumpace, and the grounde is

sandy and hath conies. There was a Celle of

Monkes of Chestre, and a Pilgrimage of our
200
Lady of Hilbiri.
Here was found, not long ago, a leaden
pilgrim sign of our Ladye of Roc Amadour,
with the legend

% SIGILLVM BEATE MARIE DE ROC AMADOVR. 201

. . . . .

HINGHAM, NORFOLK. Our Ladye of Pity.

The church is dedicated to St. Andrew. In
it there was an altar of our Blessed Ladye in the
south aisle ;
another altar, of her Nativity ;
a
chapel of our Ladye by the Rood loft, and a
chapel of our Ladye of Pity.
There were eight gildshere, each having a
stipendiary chaplain. Without doubt," says
"

Blomefield, "this church must make a fine

in those 202
appearance times."

Radulph Fulloflove, Rector of West Herling,

who died September 16, 1479, gave two pounds
of wax to St. Marye s light at Hingham. 203

HOCHAM, NORFOLK. The same Radulph Fulloflove, by his will, left

a legacy to the Tabernacle of our Blessed Ladye
at Hocham, for prayers for Alice, his mother. 204

HORSTEAD, NORFOLK. Our Ladye of Pitye.

Many pilgrimages were made hither; and

legacies were occasionally left to pay pilgrims to
205
repair to this sanctuary.

HOWE ON Hoo, There was here an image of our Blessed

200
NORFOLK. Ladye with a light.

109 20
Test. Ebor. vol. i.
p. 214. Itin. v. 52.
201 2(l2
South Mcols, p. 283. Vol. i. 666, 667.
- 04 - 05
Ibid. i. 208. Ibid. i. 280. Index Moil. Dioc. Norv. p. 66.
- 0(i
Gen. Hist, of Norfolk, p. 92.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 55

HULL. i. Church of the Most Holy Trinity.

207
John Swan, of Kingston-on-Hull, merchant,
desires to
by his will, dated November 2, 1476,
be buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity, at
Kingston-on-Hull, in the south aisle,
between the
choir and our Ladye the Mother of Pity.

2. Michael of the Carthusians. Robert

St.
desires
Golding, by will dated September i, 1453,
to be buried in this church, and leaves to the
Prior 4/. for the erection of a stained-glass window
of three lights :-
08
in the centre one to contain the
image of our Blessed Ladye ; and as a memorial
of himself, and out of his devotion, his own figure
is to be represented kneeling below the
feet of

the image of our Ladye. He also leaves five

nobles to five poor virgins, to buy five cows

when they shall be married, in honour of the
Blessed Virgin Marye.

There were four churches of our Blessed

IPSWICH.
Ladye at Ipswich.

Marye at Elm,
St.

Marye at Quay,
St.

St. Marye at Stoke,

St. Marye at Tower,

each of which had doubtless an image of our

Ladye and the usual light.
But the celebrated and miraculous image of
our Blessed Ladye called Our Ladye of Ipswich
was in St. Marye s chapel called Our Ladye of
north-west
Grace, which was situated at the
corner of the lane without the West gate opposite
to the George Inn, and which to this day goes
the name of Lady Lane. It was a great
by
pilgrimage, and many great miracles were wrought
here.
Sir Thomas More says
"

And as for the point that we spake of,

at divers
concerning myracles done in our dayes
wher these pilgrimages be, yet could I
images,
tel you soe such done so openly, so farre from
all cause of suspicion, and thereto testified

in suche sufficient wyse, that he might seme

!08
Test. Ebor. vol. iii. p. 225.
Rid, vol. ii.
p. 166.
56 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

almoste madde that hyring the whole matter,

wil mistruste the miracles. Amog which I durst

boldly tell you for one, the wonderful work of

god, that was within these few yeres wrought, in

8
y house of a right worshipful knight syr Roger
wentworth, upon divers of his children, and
specially one of his doughters a very faire yong
gentlewoman of xii. yeres of age, in meruailous
maner vexed and tormented by our ghostly enemy
the deuill, her mind alienated and rauing with
despysyng and blasphemy of god, and hatred of
all halowed thinges, with knowledge and par-
ceiving of the halowed from the unhalowed, al
wer she nothing warned thereof. And after that
moued in her own mind and monished by the
willof god, to goo to our Lady of Ippiswitche.
In the wai of which pilgrimage, she prophesied
and tolde many thinges done and said at the
same time in other places, whiche were proued
true, and many thinges said, lying in her traunce of
such wisdome and learning, that right conning me
highly merueiled to hyre of so yonge an vnlearned
maiden, whan her self wist not what she saide,
such things vttered and spoken, as well learned
me might have missed with a log study, and
being brought and laide before the image
finally
of our blessed Lady, was there in y e sight of
many people so grieuously tormeted,
worshipful
and in face, loke, and countenaunce so
eyen,
griselye chaunged, w her mouth drawen aside,
1

and her eyen laid out upon her chekes, that it

was a terrible sight to behold. And after many
merueilous thinges, at y c same time shewed upo
divers psons by y c deuil thorowe goddes suffer-

aunce, as wel al the remenaunt as the maiden

her self in the presence of all the companye
restored to theyr good state perfectly cured, and

sodeinly. And in this matter no pretext of

begging, no suspicion of faining, no possibilitie

of couterfeityng, no simplenes in the seers, her
father and mother
right honorable and rich, sore
abashed, to see suche chaunces in their children,
the witnesses, great noumbre, and many of great
worshippe, wisdom, and good experience, the
maide her selfe to yonge to fayne, and the
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 57

fashion it self to straunge for any man to faine.

And the ende of the matter virtuous, the virgin e

so moved in her minde with the miracle, that
she foorth with for ought her father coulde do,
forsoke the world and professed religion in a very
good and godly company at the mynoresse, where
she hath lived well and graciously ever sins. 209
This was one of the great sanctuaries of our
Blessed Ladye to which our forefathers used to
make yearly pilgrimages. Cranmer says :

Your owne fathers they themselfes wer

"

greatly seduced to certeyne famouse and noto-

riouse ymages, as by our lady of Walsingham,
cure ladye of Ippeswiche, saynt Thomas of Canter
bury sainct Anne of Buckestone, the rood of
,

grace, and suche lyke, whom many of your

parentes visitide yerely, leauinge their owne
houses and familyes. To them they made vowes
and pilgrimages, thinkyng that God would heare
their prayers in that place rather than in another

place. They kissed their feete deuoutly, and to

theim they offred candles, and ymages of wax,
210
rynges, beades, gold and sylver aboundantly."
Cardinal Wolsey ordered a yearly pilgrimage
tobe made to Our Ladye of Ipswich. 211
In the thirtieth of Henry the Eighth the image
of Our Ladye of Ipswich was carried up to
Chelsea and burnt the rich offerings and jewels
:

went, as a matter of course, to the King s treasury.

A curious letter of Thomas Dorset to the
"right
Mr. Horsewell, maior," and
worshipful
others, has been preserved.
"... I toke a whery at Pawlis wharffe,

wherein also was allredye a doctour, namyd

doctor Crewkehorne, which was sent for to come
to the byshope of Canterbury. And he before
the iii bishopis of Canterbury, of Worcetre, and

Salesbury, confessed that he was rapte into heven,

where he see the Trinite settyng on a pall, or

* 09
A Dialogue concerning Heresycs and matters of Religion made in the year of
our Lorde mdxxviij. By Sir Thomas More. Book i. c. 16. Opp. London, 1557. :

P. 137.
410
A Short Instruction into Christian Religion, being a Catechism set forth by
Archbishop Cranmer in 1548. Reprint, Oxford, 1829, p. 23.
111
Ind. Mon. Dioc. Nor, p. 117.
58 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

mantell, or cope (call what you pleese), of blew

it

color, and from the middle upward they were

thre bodyes, and from the midle they were closied
all thre into on bodye, they were but on, havyng

also but ii feete, nor but ii legges ; and he spake

with Our ladye, and she toke hym by the hande,
and bad hym serve her as he had doon in tyme
passed, and bad hym to preche aborde (abroad)
that she wold be honorid at Eppiswhiche and at
Willisdon as she hath bee in old tymes, neforte;
this he said he wolde abyde bye. Then my lord
of Canterbury opposed hym nerre, and he made
but weke aunswer, and was bade to departe and
come agayne the second day aftre. So did he,
but at the laste he denyed his vision." 212

ISLINGTON. This was a celebrated image of our Blessed

Ladye. It was burnt at Chelsea in 1538. Burnet
says "Then many rich shrines of Our Ladye of
:

Wahingham, of Ipswich, and Islington, with a

greatmany more, were brought up to London and
burnt by Cromwell s orders." 213
2. Our Ladye of the Oak.
Was the image of Our Ladye of Islington the
same as Our Ladye of the Oak?
There exists an original proclamation of Henry
the Eighth as follows :

"

A proclamation yt no p~son interrupt the

King sgame of partridge or pheausant.
"

Rfx inajori ct vicccomitibns London . Vobis

mandamus, &c.
"

Forasmuch
King s most royall rnatie
as the
is much have the games of hare,
desirous to

partridge, phesaunt, and heron pserved in and

about his honor att his palace of Westm. for his
own disporte and pastime; that is to saye from his
said palace of Westm. to St. Gyles in the Fields,
and from thence to Islington, to Or Ladye of the
214
Oke, to Highgate? &c.

IXWORTH THORPE. The will of Golfrye Gylbert, of Ixworth

Thorpe, in 1524, contains this bequest:
212
Letters relating to the Snfptcssicn of the Monasteries, p. 36.
213 Lend. 1681, bk. iii. pt. i. 243.
Hist, of the Reformation.
214
In the collection of original proclamations in the Library of the Society of
Antiquaries, vol. i.
p. 2IO.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 59

give to the Tenement longing to

Itm. I
"

our lyght in Thorpe aforesayd to the

ladye s

reparacon of the sayd ten-te tenne peces of hewne

tymber lyeing in my house.
Itm. I give to the sayde lighte of Our Ladye
"

one skeppe of bees to be delyvered to the Fermor,

and he to delyver yt to the next fermor wt all the
215
increase at hys departing."

The fermor was the renter of the hives, from

ferme, a rent; hence the word farmer, a hirer of

land.

JERVAULX. Our Ladye of Gervaulx, mentioned under

Coverham. 216

JESMOND. About a mile from Newcastle-on-Tyne. Here

was a well called Saint Marye s Well, to which
there was a great resort of pilgrims. 217

Pilgrimages to this well, and to the chapel at

Jesmond, were so frequent, that one of the prin
cipal streets in Newcastle-on-Tyne is supposed to
have taken its name partly from having an inn to
which the pilgrims, who flocked thither for the
benefit of the holy water, used to resort. This
well is said to have had as many steps down to it
as there are articles in the Creed. 218

KELLOW. John Trollop, Esquire, of Thornley, by his

will dated October 30, 1476, leaves to the light of
the Blessed Virgin Marye in the church of Kellow,
vis. and viiifl ., and one pound of wax. 219
7

KENILWORTH. John Beaufilz, of Balsall, in the county of

Warwick, says, in 1488 :

... doe make my Testament. My body

"I

to be buried in the church of the abbey of Kenil-

worth before the image of the Blessed Virgin
Marye in the passage to the door of the choir, or
wherever Dom John Yardley, abbot of the said
220
monastery, shall consider most expedient."
215
Proceedings of Suffolk Arch. lust. vol. i.
p. 105.
21G
See
ante, p. 27.
217 Statistical Account
of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 381.
218
Brand, Hist, of Neivcastle-upon-Tyne, vol. i. p. 339.
lu
IV ills and Inventories of the Northern Counties.
"

Surtees Society, pt, i.

p. 97.
M Kenilviorth Illustrated. Chiswick, 1821, p. 10.
60 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

KESSINGLAND, In the church of St. Edmund, the altar of Our

SUFFOLK. Ladye stood in the chancel, and over it her
221
image, with a light burning perpetually before it.

KIMBERLEY, There was a chapel of our Blessed Ladye in

NORFOLK. the churchyard here ; at the altar of this chapel
was the image of our Blessed Ladye, with a lamp
burning before it, and there was an endowment
for a priest to say a daily Mass. It was founded
before 1370, but the lands were not settled on the
chantrey-priest till 1401, and then Henry the
Fourth passed a licence of mortmain for the
222
purpose.

KINGSTON, Clement Milam, of Kingston, by his will dated

SURREY. November n, 1498, left :

"To Our
Lady Lyght, \2d.
"To Our
223
Lady Lyght of Pety, i2</."

KINGSWOOD. In the accounts of the Duke of Buckingham,

1520, there an entry
is :

"

The duke s oblation of 6s. 8^1 to Our Ladye

of Kyngeswode.
"

Lord Stafford gave is."

m
KIRKBY FLETHAM, August 10, 1445 :

YORKSHIRE. Richard Barton, Esquire, leaves to

"

owre
225
Ladye light iii,r. iiuV."

KIRKBY. Giraldus Cambrensis relates what follows, as

having occurred in his day In the diocese of :
"

Coventry, and during the episcopate of Robert

Pecthe, or Peche, in Latin, Peecahim, 1117 1127,
some thieves came by night to the church of St.
Marye, in the village of Kirk by, near the castle of
Bridelawe, they broke in the door and robbed the
church of a silver chalice, the books, and all the
ornaments which they found of service for their
own use, or Lastly they went to
rather, abuse.
the image of the Blessed Virgin, which was fairly
adorned with gold and silver, and despoiled it of
221 S22
Suckling, p. 258. Blomefield, i.
748.
23
Manning, Hist, of Surrey, vol. i.
p. 370.
124
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. iii. pt. i.
p. 500, n. 1285.
223
Test. Ebor. ii. p. 215.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 61

the gems and geld ornaments ;

and preparing to
to carry away the figure of
depart, they attempted
the Child which was seated in His Mother s lap,
whose arms were, as usual, stretched forward.

Suddenly she closed her right arm round her

Son, and held Him to her. This they saw by the

light of a lamp which was burning outside. They

fled in alarm, carrying off the spoils which they
had placed in sacks. Vainly, all night, did they

attempt to escape; when morning dawned they

went back to the door of the church, and were
unable to depart. They then entered the church
with the priest, and restored all that they had
stolen, and admitting their guilt, they clove to the
altar, and thus, through
the refuge and protection
afforded them by the church, they escaped the
death which they deserved. And even to this
our
day, in proof of this great miracle, Ladye
226
enfolds her arm around her Divine Son."
*

KIRKLINGTON. October 2, 1472 :

Eleanor Wandesford of Kirklington, widow,

"

leaves to the support of the lights called Rudlith

and Ladylith (the Rood-light, and the Ladye-
light), in the church of Kirklington, His. \\\\d"*-~

LAPWORTH. In the sixth of Edward the First, 1277-8, Ivo

Pipard settled a messuage and lands,
and .24 d. a

year, for the maintenance of two wax candles, and

two lamps in the one
church of Lap worth ; viz.,

candle to burn before the altar of St. James on

Sundays, the other to burn before the relics,
and
one lamp before the altar of our Blessed Ladye in
228
the chancel.

LAUNCESTON. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, son of King John,

left five shillings for the support of
a light in the
229
chapel of our Blessed Ladye.

LEICESTER. There was a solemn procession annually from

the church of St. Marye to St. Margaret s, in which
the image of our Blessed Ladye was carried under
a canopy borne by four persons, with a quinstrel,
7
Rolls Edit. Test. Ebov. iii. 202.
186 Gemm. Eccl. Dist. 1. c. xxxiii.
a28
Notices of the Churches in Warwickshire. Warwick, 1847, vol. i. p. 16.
Monaslicon Diocesis Exoniensis. By George Oliver, D.D. London, 1846, p. 27.
62 Old English Devotion to onr Blessed Ladye.

harp, and other music, before her, and twelve

persons representing the twelve Apostles, each
of them bearing the name of the Apostle he
represented in his bonnet. There were also four
persons bearing banners, with the virgins of the
parish attending.
In the church, the image of our Blessed Ladye
was adorned with a crown on its head, and placed
in a tabernacle, with a candlestick and light before

it,
and a table (i.e., tabula, or reredos) represent
230
ing her consecration.
John of Gant bequeaths to the new collegiate
church of our Ladye of Leicester, "moun rouge
vestiment de velvet embroudez de solales dor
ovecque trestout 1 apparail a ycelles vestiment
appartenant, et a cella trestoutz mes messalx et
autres livres de ma chapelle qui sount del use
231
et ordinal de la eglise Cathedrales de Sarum."

LEYTON, or Low "In this parish church, dedicated to St. Mary,

LEIGHTON. there was," says Stow, "in the Popish times, a

taper of wax containing three pounds, and the
wick to contain half an ounce, that was burnt
before the image of our Blessed Lady on her five
holy days. And a glass lamp, and a gallon of
oyl to burn in the said lamp within the said
church, before the crucifix or the rood there. As
also one pound of frankincense every year, ad
Laudem Dei &
omnium Sanctorum ibidem in
eadem Ecdesia in diebus Festivalibus per totum
annum thurificand, as the record mentions it.
And that the Abbot of Stratford, parson of the
church Bcata Maria de Ley ton in 35 year of
232
Henry 6 did sue an assize and set forth," that
he and his predecessors were to have half an
ounce of cotton wick and three pounds of wax,
to make a candle, or taper, to burn in the said
church before the image of the Blessed Mary,
yearly, on five festival days, viz., her Annuncia
tion, Conception, Purification, Assumption, and

230
Hist, and Antiquities of the ancient Toivn of Leicester. Attempted by John
Throsby. Leicester, 1794, p. 220.
231
Test. Ebor. i. p. 223.
232
A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, &c. By John Stow. Eel.

John S try pe, M.A. London, 1720. Appendix, p. 114.

 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 63
233
Nativity. All this is stated in the Year Book
23i
of the 35 Henry VI.

LlNCHLADE. August 5. 1502.

"Itm. For thoffering of the Quene to Oure
235
Ladye at Linchelade, \\s. W."

LINCOLN. Our Blessed Ladye was chosen as the Patron

ess of Lincoln on the occasion of the victory of
the citizens over the forces of the Earl of Chester
in 1147, which they ascribed to her intercession. 236
In the inventory of the treasures of the cathe
dral appropriated by Henry VIII., which was
made in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, 1536,
there is a description of the image of our Ladye.
;<

Itm. A great image of our Ladye sitting in

a chair, silver and gilt, with four polls, two of

them having arms on the top before, having upon

her head a crown, silver and gilt, set with stones
and pearls, and one bee with stones and pearls
about her neck, and an owche depending thereby,
having in her hand a scepter with one flower set
with stones and pearls, and one bird on the top
thereof; and her child sitting upon her knee,
with one crown on His head, with a diadem set
with pearls and stones, having a ball with a cross,
silver and gilt, in His left hand, and at either of
His feet a scutcheon of arms." 237
Mention is also made of an ivory statue of
our Blessed Ladye which was in the treasury of
the cathedral.
Itm.
"

A
tabernacle of ivory standing upon
four feet, with two leaves, with one image of our

Ladye in the middle, and the Salutation of our

Ladye in one leaf, and the Nativity of our Ladye
238
in the other leaf."

The easternmost portion of Lincoln Cathedral

is commonly called the Choir of Angels, from the

conspicuous elegance of the winged figures in

234 Lond. 1708,

Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Farochiale. v. ii.
p. 380.
2M
Stow, nt sup. loc. cit.
235
p r vy Expenses,
i &c. p. 37.
2a8
Rog. de Hoveden, Annales, vol. i.
p. 209. Rolls Edit.; also, Atlas Marianus,
n. DCLXXI., p. 735.
237 Mon. Angl. vi. p. 1279.
238
Ibid.
64 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

high-relief which adorn the spandrils of the tri-

forium arches.
Onthe south side is a group, of singular
purity of design, representing our Blessed Ladye
and her Divine Son, which was thus described in
1848 by Professor Cockerell, R.A. : "The artist

has relied wholly on the idea, form and grace of

the composition and of the parts ; eschewing
every extraneous ornament. No hair, scarcely
the flesh, the nude, or accessory of any kind,
appears ; aa austere but noble plainness char
and we are captivated by the
acterizes the whole,
intrinsic
beauty of the conception and execution,
unaided by the common resources sought by the
vulgar in after-times, when the religious spirit, by
which these works were inspired, had declined.
"

The Godhead of the Child Jesus appears in

the dignity of His attitude and gesture, especially
as contrasted with the angelic boy acolyte, who
ministers incense to Him with officious zeal. With
one hand upon His mother s breast, and standing
on her lap, He seems affectionately to confess
the taking of our human nature upon Him ; while
with the other He unveils her whom all genera
tions shall henceforth call Blessed. Her nobility,
modesty, graciousness, and youth fulfil all the
idea of the Virgin Mother.
"

Under her feet is the serpent, according to

the prediction that her seed should bruise its
head.
"

It may safely be proposed to compare this

composition with any other known of this or of

239
any other previous Christian epoch."
This elongation of the church was effected
about 1282 for the reception of the relics of
St. Hugh, which were enclosed in a golden shrine
of exquisite workmanship.
Of St. Hugh But not
his biographer says :
"

to mention the more authoritative opinions of

others concerning these great miracles of Almighty
God, let it suffice for the present to commend the
following consideration to the faith of all simple
minded p:rsons: that it was not without good
reason that so joyous a display of light was seen
239
Lincoln Volume of the Royal Archaeological Institute, 1848, p. 225.
 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye. 65

to shed lustre on the funeral procession of one,

(to do honour to him) who, for the glory of the
ever- Virgin Mother of the True Light, had himself
crowned the lights which usually burned in her
church with the gift of a host of others. For he
endowed the treasury of Lincoln with ample
revenues for this very purpose, that the lustre of
the tapers with which the immense area of its

huge cathedral was illuminated during the offices

of the night might vie with that of the rays of

240
the sun, with which it was lit up by day.
In the fifteenth century pilgrimages were often
imposed as a punishment, just as a magistrate,
now-a-days, would pronounce a sentence of four
teen or twenty-one days, or more. And the great
peculiarity of being sentenced to a pilgrimage of
this sort was, that the penalty might be worked
out by deputy. In the municipal archives of
Ghent there is a MS. described as the "Witten-
which contains a long list of the pilgrimages
bouc,"

in Europe thus inflicted at Ghent, and the prices

for which they can be bought off, or made by

deputy. This list was evidently drawn up prior

to 1422. The pilgrimage from Ghent to Our
of Lincoln t ons Vrauwe Lincole is put
Ladye
down at five livres?-

2. Our Ladye in St. Catherine s Church is

also named in the list of the Witten bone; fons

Vramve en t Sente Kathelinc, te Lincole, and the
pilgrimage from Ghent
is put down at five livres^

LISKEARD. Our Ladye in the Park.

Leland says: "About half a mile, or I cam

to Liskard, I wood, by a chapel of
passed, in a
our Lady caullid Our Lady in the Park, where
243
was wont to be gret pilgrymage."
This was an early and a celebrated pilgrimage.
In the reign of Edward II. it was determined

Rolls Ed.
240
Magna Vita S. Ilugonis Lincoln epis. p. 366.
241
Cannaert. Bydragen tot de kinnis van het oude Strafrecht in Vlaenderen.
Ghent, 1835, p. 354-
242
Ibid.
2W Itin. vol. iii. p. 27.
66 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

that the vicar of the parish church had no right

244
to the oblations made at this chapel.

On the ist November, 1441, Bishop Lacy

granted an indulgence to penitent persons who
contributed to the repair of the road to this
245
chapel.
It is also mentioned that there were "certen

lands gyven to ye said chappell, a garden with

an orchard, and one halfe acre of grownde. And
in the said chappell was great oblacons some-
246
tyme."

LONDON. London in Catholic times may vie with any

city in the world in practical devotion to our
Blessed Ladye. A volume would not suffice to
enumerate all the foundations and pious acts of
the citizens of old in her honour. But in the
present series a few examples must suffice. The
charities, gilds, hospitals, and God s-houses prove
that, in their successes, the Catholic citizens of
London were ever mindful of our Blessed Ladye.

They sought the greater glory of God, the honour

of His Immaculate Mother, and their own salva
tion. Their ambition was to be inscribed in the
Book of Life. They strove to acquire riches, but
not with the sole object of founding a family :

they loved to make the poor of Christ the

Blessed Poor, as they were called in Catholic
days partakers of their wealth and in the ;

endowment of alms-houses, commonly named

Houses of God, they sought to piovide refuges
for a succession of Blessed Poor, or Bedesmen,
whose prayers should daily be offered upfor the

repose of their souls.

First of all I will begin with

The City Seal.
Stow says :
"

In the 4 of Richard II., 1380-1,

in a full assembly made in the upper chamber of
the Guildall, summoned by William Wai worth,
then Mayor, as well of Aldermen as of the

544 and Lysons, Magna Britannia, Cornwall,

Rot. Parl. iii. p. 505 ; p. 202.
845
Mon. Dioc. Exon, p. 72.
246
Ibid. p. 448.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 67

Common Council in every ward, for certain affairs

concerning the King, it was there by common
consent agreed and ordained, that the old seal
of the office of the mayoralty of the city being

very small, old, unapt, and uncomely

for the

honour of the city, should be broken, and one

new should be had.
other Which the said Mayor
commanded to be made artificially and honour
able for the exercise of the said office thereafter
in place of the other. In which new seal, besides
the images of Peter and Paul, which of old were
rudely engraven, there should be,
under the feet
of the said images, a shield of the arms of the
said city perfectly graved, with two lions support

ing the same, with two serjeants-of-arms,

on either
part one and two tabernacles, in which, above,
should stand two angels, between whom (above
the said images of Peter and Paul) should be set
the Virgin.
glorious This being done, the old
seal of the office was delivered to Richard
Odiham, Chamberlain, who brake it,
and in
the new seal to the
place thereof was delivered
said Mayor, to use in his office of mayoralty as
247
occasion should require."

It is generally believed that the sword which

is borne in the arms of the city is in commemora

tion of Sir William Walworth s loyal conduct.

Stow, however, disposes of the question thus

:

"This new seal seemeth to be made before

William Walworth was knighted. For he is not

intitled there Sir, as he afterwards was. And
certain it is that the same new seal then made
is now in use, and none other, in that office of
Which may suffice to answer the
mayoralty.
former fable, without showing any
evidence sealed
with the old seal, which was the cross and sword
as now be of St. Paul, and not the dagger of
248
William Walworth."

The City arms are, argent, a plain cross gules,

a sword of St. Paul in the first quarter.

St. Paul s Cathedral.

i. The Marye Mass and Office of our Blessed

Ladye.
248 Bk.
"7
Bk. ii.
p. 186. ii.
p. 186.

F 2
68 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

"Shortly after the beginning of King Henry

the Third
"

s time, says Dugdale, "an

assignation
is made by Eustace de Fauconbridge, Bishop of

London, of the church of Bumstead, which the

prior and convent of Stoke, at his request, had
granted to this cathedrall for the behoof of poor
clerks frequenting the quire and celebrating the

Holy Office of Our Ladye; and, moreover, of v.

marks issuing out of the church of Finchingfeld ;
so that six clerks should be made choice of every
day, with one priest of the quire, to be at the
celebration of the Mass of Our Ladye, and also to

say mattens and all other canonical hours at her

altar.
"

And in anno MCCXCIX. (29* Edward the

First) the prior and convent of Thetford gave four

marks per annum to be distributed likewise
amongst the clerks which should celebrate the
249
Mass of the said Blessed Virgin at her altar."

2. Our Ladye in the

Ladye Chapel.
"Which continues Dugdale, "was doubt
altar,"

less it that stood in a certain chapel dedicated to

the honour of our Ladye in this church, where-
unto I finde that the executors of Hugh de
Pourte, in 2nd Edward the Second, gave xviii. sol
yearly rent to maintain one taper of three pounds
weight to burn before it every day whilst her
Mass should be solemnizing ;
and at every proces
sion of the quire before the same altar." 250

Our Ladye at the Pillar in the Nave,

3.

commonly known as Our Ladye of Grace.

But in the body of the church stood the
"

glorious image of the Blessed Virgin, fixt to the

pillar at the foot of Sir John de Beauchamp s
tomb (viz., the second pillar
on the south side
from the steeple westwards.) Before which that
there might be a lamp burning every night I find
a grant made to the dean and chapter of this
cathedrall in annoMCCCLXV. (39th Edward the
Third) by John Barnet, then Bishop of Bathe and
249
History of St. Paul s Cathedral in London. By William Dugdale. London,
1658, pp. 1 8, 20.
250
Ibid. loc. cit.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 69

Wells, of one water-mill, Ixxvi. acres of arable

land, v. acres of meadow, ix. acres of pasture,
viii. acres of wood, and xliii s. yearly rent lying in
Nastoke, in the county of Essex In which grant :

he appointeth that after mattens celebrated in the

Quire every day, and those present thereat gone
out, an antheme of our Ladye, scilicet, Nesciens
Mater, or some other one suitable to the time,
should be sung before the said image, with a
versicle which being performed, the gravest
:

person then present to say a collect of the said

Blessed Virgin ; afterwards the Psalm of JDe
profundis for the souls of all the faithfull, with the
versicle and prayer, Deus cujus miseratione, &c. :

and then the same person to say, Animtz omnium

fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requies-
cant in pace.

Many and frequent were the oblations which

"

were made to this image by devout people and

pilgrims, as by the accompts of the church officers

appeareth, in so much as the bishop expected

some advantage thereby ;
but to this the dean and
chapter not yielding, the difference was referred to
the arbitration of Thomas Arundell, Archbishop
of Canterbury, who by his award, bearing date
xv. February, anno MCCCCXI. (i3th Henry the

Fourth) adjudged them totally to the dean and

canons resident forasmuch as it was then proved
;

that those oblations had been formerly received

by their substitutes, viz., the chamberleins and

bell-ringers of the church ;
whogiving their daily
attendance therein, and taking notice of those
that their tapers burning, having ex-
offered

tinguisht the light, carried them to a roome below

the chapter-house, and there caused them to be
melted to the use of the said dean and canons.
And as for the oblations of money, which were

put into an iron box fixt to the same pillar, under

the feet of that image ; they were then also
decreed by the before-specified Archbishop, to the
same dean and canons and their successors for
251
ever."

When the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of

London had been dismissed their offices conse-
251
Loc. dt.
7o Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

quently upon the disturbances caused by the

Wydiffites, and their successors appointed, the

King sent privately, and commanded the city

officers to assemble, and make a wax candle, or

taper, with the Duke

of Lancaster s arms upon it,
and carry solemn procession, to St. Paul s
it, in a

Church, there continually to burn before the image

of the Blessed Virgin Marye, at the expence of
the City, which was punctually performed. 252
In the accounts of Elizabeth of York, March
24, 1502
"Offering to Our Ladye of Grace in Poules,

xx d."

December 24, 1502

"

Itm
thofferinge of the Quene to
for the
roode at the north dore of Polles, iii s. viii d. ; and
to Our Ladye of Grace there iii s. viii d.
254
"Summa, viix. iiii//.

As the anthem, Nesciens Mater, has

NOTE.
disappeared from our modern prayer-books, I
think it as well to insert it here

Nesciens Mater Virgo virum perperit

sine dolore Salvatorem sceculorum,

ipsum Regem Angelorum sola Virgo

lactabat ubere cle ccdo pleno. 255

A Maiden-Mother pure, who never man did know,

The Saviour of all times, with pangless travail bare
The Angel s King Himself, from breasts which heaven
made flow,
Alone a Virgin fed, His Maiden-Mother fair.

4. Our Ladye in the New Work.

"

continues 256
But," Dugdale,
"

besides the
before-specified chapell or altar of our Ladye in
the body of the church, as before said, there was
another in the New Work (viz., above the quire),
whereof the first mention that I have found is in
anno MCCCXXIX. (3rd Edward the Third), the
then dean (said John de Everdon) and canons
granting seven tapers, each weighing two pounds,

252
Entick, Hist, of London, vol. i.
p. 282.
253 254
privy Expenses, p. 3. Ibid. p. 81.
255
Schncidt, Olivetum Marianum. Col. Agrip. 1735, p. 97.
256
Cl sufra, faf. fif.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 71

to burn at the celebrations therein to the honour

Ladye, and St. Lawrence ;
and
of God, our
of those tapers should
appointed that the charge
be supported out of the oblations made by good
for reverence of those
people thereto ; who either
or the images of St. Lawrence and St. John
saints,

Baptist, standing
about that chapell, or of St.
the outside thereof to the
Mary Magdalen, on
east, had recourse thither.

"So likewise there was an image of our Ladye

in the said part called the
New Work: for it

appears that in igth

Edward the Third, 1345,
Thomas Hatfield, Bishop of Durham, granted an
indulgence of xl. days pardon to all such as
being truely penitent and confest of their sins,
should come thither and say a Pater noster and an
with a pious intent, or give in books, vest
Ave>

c., any
ments, or other ecclesiastical ornaments,
considerable matter thereto."

Our Ladye "in Gesem," or de Pucrperio.

5.
"In the iQth Edward
Second, 1325-6, the

Roger de Waltham, canon of this church, amongst

many other good works, founded out of his

piety a certain oratory
on the south side of the
quire of this cathedrall, towards the upper end

thereof, honour of God, our Ladye, St,

to the

Lawrence, and Saints; and adorned it with

all
hier
many images and pictures of the celestial
Blessed Virgin, &c. And
archy, the joys of the
in the south wall opposite to the said
lastly,
tabernacle which con
oratory, erected a glorious
tained the image of the said Blessed Virgin,

sitting as it were in childbed, as also of our

Saviour in swadling clothes, lying betwixt the ox
and the ass, and St. Joseph at her feet. Above
which was another of her standing with the
image
Child in her arms. And on the beam thwarting
from the upper end of the oratory to the before-
the crowned images of
specified childbed, placed
our Saviour and His Mother sitting in one taber

nacle; as also the images of St. Katherine and

Neither was
St. Margaret, virgins and martyrs.
there any part of the said oratory or roof thereof,

but he caused it to be beautified with comely

72 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

pictures and images ; to the end that the memory

of our Blessed Saviour and His saints, and
espe
cially of the glorious Virgin His Mother,
might
be always the more famous. In which
oratory
he designed that his sepulture should 257
be."

6. Our Ladye in Sir John Pultney s chapel.

Sir John Pultney, who had been four times
Mayor, desired to be buried in the Church of St.
Lawrence, in Candlewyck Street. In his will, dated
November 14, 23rd Edward the Third, he says :

I will and ordain that in the Church of St.

"

Paul, in London, which as my mother I desire to

honour with a filial affection, there be three priests
celebrating divine service in a certain chapell
newly to be built at my cost in the north part
thereof. In which chapell it is my desire that one
of those priests shall every
day say the Mass of
the Blessed Virgin for my soul," &c, and for those
of his parents and relations, &c.
"And for the solemn performance of his
anniversary assigned particular yearly pittances to
the principal canons ; so also to the
petty canons,
the vicars-chorall, and officers of the
church,
appointing that the Lord Mayor being thereat
should have vi s. viii d. ; the recorder, v s. ; the
two sheriffs, vi s. viii d. ; the common cryer,
iiij. \\d. ; the Lord Mayor s sergeants, vis. viii//.;
and the master of the College of St. Lawrence,
vi s. viii d. But if any of these should be absent,
then their portion to be distributed to the
poor.
And furthermore bequeathed the yearly sum of
almoner of this church to be by him
xxj. to the
bestowed on the summer habits of the choristers ;
upon condition that they, the said choristers,
should every day, after compline ended in the
quire, go into the before-specified chapel, as
intended by him to be built, and sing an anthem
of the Blessed Virgin before her
image there
being, solemnly with note, which being ended, one
of them to say the prayer of the said
Virgin, next
the Psalm DC profundis, and then the prayer for the
dead, and lastly these words, Anima Johannis de
Pultoney fundatoris hujus capellce, d animcz omnium
257
Dugdale, p. 29.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 73

fidelium defiindorum per Dei misericordiam requies-

cant in pace" -^

7. Our Ladye of the Annunciation.

In the 34th of Edward the Third, 1360, John
King of France, lays down at the Annunciation
259
xii. nobles. This was the altar of the Gild of
the Annunciation. 260

PATERNOSTER Row lies close to St. Paul s on

the north. "It was so
says Stow, "because
called,"

of stationers or text-writers that dwelled here, who

wrote and sold all sorts of books then in use,
namely A B
C, or Absits, with the Pater noster,
Ave, Creed, Graces, c. Turners of beads also
dwelled there, and they were called Pater noster
makers ;
and as I read in a record of one Robert
Nikke, Pater noster maker and citizen in the

reign of Henry the Fourth, and so of others. At

the end of this Pater noster Row is Ave Mary, or
Ave Maria Lane, so called upon the like occasion
of text-writers and
bead-makers then dwelling
there. 201 In the plan it is called Ivy Lane. 262
In the twenty-six wards of London there were
a hundred and fourteen parish churches, thirteen
of which were dedicated in honour of our Blessed
Lady. Stow s list agrees with the one given in
the London City Press of the i5th July, 1871,
excepting that St. Marye Axe does not appear.
He gives the sad reason This parish, about :
"

the year 1565, was united to the parish church

of St. Andrew Undershaft. And so was St. Mary
at the Axe suppressed, and letten out to be a
warehouse for a merchant." Here was afterwards
a Free School kept. 263

I. St. Mary Abchurch.

The parish church is called of St. Mary
Abchurch, Apechurch, or Upchurch, as I have
read it, says Stow. 264
In 1475, J ori n Weryn, citizen and goldsmith,
desired to be buried in the church or church-

288 25 2CO
Dugdale, pp. 30, 31. Ibid. p. 22. Stow, bk. iii.
p. 145.
261 I62
Ibid. bk. .
p. 174. Ibid. bk. ii.
p. 124
263
Ibid. p. 86.
- M Ibid. bk. ii.
p. 183.
 74 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

hawe (yard) of St. Mary Abchurch, and bequeathed

lod.among the people in worship of the five
wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the five
65
joys of our Ladye.-
Many bequests were made to this church.

II. St. Mary Aldermanbury.

So called from its situation in Aldermanbury
Street. 266

III. St. Mary Aldermary,

Was the oldest of all the churches of our
Ladye in the city, and consequently called the
elder, or Alder Marye. 267

IV. St. Mary Axe, or Pellipar,

Commonly called Mary at the Axe, from

St.

the sign of an axe over against the east end

thereof; or St. Mary Pellipar, from a plot of
ground lying to the north side thereof pertaining
to the Skinners of London. 268

V. St. Mary Bothaw, or Boat-haw.

This church, being near unto Downgate on
the river Thames, has the addition of Bothaw
or Boat-haw, of near adjoining to an haw or
yard, wherein (of old time) boats were made
and repaired. This seems of old to be called
also St. Mary de Bothache. 209

VI. St. Mary Bow,

Called De
Arcubus, from the stone arches or
bows on the top of the steeple or bell tower
thereof. Which arching was as well on the old
steeple as on the new. This church in the reign
of William the First, being the first in this city
built on arches of stone, was therefore called the
New Mary-church, or St. Mary de Arcubus, ad
270
Arcus, or le Bow, in West Cheaping.
In 1469, it was ordered by a Common Council
that the Bow
bell should be rung nightly at nine
o clock. In 1472, John Dunne, mercer, by his
will gave to the parson and churchwardens of

263 2Mi 267

Stow, bk. ii.p. 184. Ibid. bk. iii.
p. 71. Ibid. p. 18.
298 SBO Ibid. 27
Ibid. bk. ii.
p. 86. bk. ii.
p. 198. Ibid. bk. iii. pp. 20, 21.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 75

St. Mary Bow, two tenements with the appur

tenances in Hosier Lane, then so called, for the
maintenance of Bow Bell.
One William Copeland, churchwarden, gave
the great bell, which is rung nightly at nine of
the clocke, which had this inscription cast in
the metale in 1515

Dudum fundabar Bowbel campana vocabar

271
Sexta sonat, bis sexta sonat ;
ter tertia pulset.

St. Mary ad Anus is mentioned in the Atlas

Jlfartauus. 272
It is from the Church of St. Marye-le-Bow
that the Court of Arches derives its name. Black-
stone says :

"

The Court of Arches is a court of appeal

belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury ;

whereof the judge is called the Dean of the Arches,
because he anciently held his court in the church
of St. Mary-le-Bow (Sancta Maria de Arcubus},

though all the principal spiritual courts are now

holden at Doctors Commons. His proper juris
diction is only over the thirteen peculiar parishes
belonging to the Archbishop in London ; but the
office of Dean of the Arches having been for a
long time united with that of the Archbishop s
principal officer, he now in right of the last-
mentioned officer (as doth also the official

principal of the Archbishop of York) receives and

determines appeals from all the sentences of
all inferior ecclesiastical courts within the pro
273
vince."

VII. St. Mary Colechurch.

Named of one Cole that builded it, says
Stow. 274
first year of his reign Henry the Fourth
In the
gave licence to William Marshall and others to
found a brotherhood of St. Katherine in this
church, because St. Thomas a Becket, and St.

Edmund, King, were baptized there. It is thus

expressed in the Record In Eccles. de S. Maria :

271
Wever, p. 402.
273
272
N. DXXXVIII. p. 629. Commentaries, bk. iii. c. 5, I. p. 64. Oxford, 1770.
274
Stow, bk. iii. p. 34.
 76 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

de Colechurch juxta magnum aqueduct in qua

ecclesia S.Thomas de Catituar, et B. Edmund, Rex,
baptizati fuerunt. This gild was confirmed in the
twenty-fifth of Henry the Sixth.

VIII. St. Mary Hill, or atte Hill.

So called because it is on the ascent from
275
Billingsgate.
By the churchwardens accounts of 1353, John
Causton, mercer, left the rents of certain tene

ments for one priest, and five tapers to burn

before the image of our Ladye at the high altar of
the Salutation.
Thegreat festival here was the Assumption.
In 1489, there is an entry for "ale and brede
on our Lady Day, the Assumption, 3^."

And amongst the annual quit-rents :

"

To the brotherhood of our Lady and St.

Thomas in St. Magnus church, for Hugh Brown-
ham for the Salve per annum, xii s.
To the brotherhood of our Ladye in the same
6
church, for T. Cawston, vis.-

IX. St. Mary Mounthaw, Monthaut, Mount-

haul, De Monte Alto. A very small church, and
was originally built for the Monthauts, who had
their house there. 277

X. St. Mary Somerset; sometimes called

Summer s-hith. 278

XL St. Mary Staining.

Apparently so called from being in Staining
279
Lane, which lane took its name, as may be
supposed of painter-stainers dwelling there. But
others say that the word staining is derived from
stein, or stan which is the Saxon for stone, and

signifies as much as a stone church.

280

575
Stow, bk. ii.
p. 1 68.
276
Nichols, Illustrations of the manners and expenses of ancient times in England.
Lond. 1798, p. 89.
277
Stow, bk. iii. p. 212.
273
Newcourt, vol. i. p. 451.
27a
Stow, bk. iii. p. 96.
sac
Newcourt, vol. i.
p. 457.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladyc. 77

XII. St. Mary Woolchurch.

So named from a beam placed
"

there ever in
the churchyard, as it seemeth ; for the same was
therefore called Woolchurch Haw, of the Tronage,
or weighing of wooll there. And to verify this,
I find amongst the customs of London written

in French in the reign of King Edward the

Second, a chapter entitled, Lcs Customes de

Woolchurche Haw, wherein is set down what
was then to be paid for every parcel of wooll
281
weighed."
In the Ordinances of the Drapers Company,
under the date of the sixth year of Henry the
Sixth this entry occurs :

the manteyninge of cure lighte.

For
"

"Also ordeyned hyt is that there schull be v

tapers of wax of resonable wheight sette on a
candelstyke of laton, as ordeyned of old tyme
at

Wol-chyrche in the worchipp of th assumpcyon of

cure Lady, and they to brenne at due tymes, as
the custom ys, the which lyght schull be well and
2
honestly ordeyned and mainteyned."

XIII. St. Mary Woolnoth.

"

There is in the
high street," says Stow, a "

church of St. Mary Woolnoth, of

proper parish
the Nativity, the reason of which I have not yet
learned. Probably, because this church was
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Marye with
the Infant Jesus in her arms, as she is often
28 5

pictured."

Simon Eyre, a famous merchant, sometime

Sir
an upholsterer, then a draper, and Mayor of
London in 1445, the founder of Leaden Hall, and
a fair gave the Cardinal s Hatt
chapel there,
Tavern, in Lombard Street, with a
tenement
annexed on the east part of it, and a mansion
behind the east tenement, together with an alley
from Lombard Street to Cornhill, with the appur
tenances, all which were by him new built,
towards
a Brotherhood of our Ladye in this church, in

which he was buried. 284

281
Stow, hk. ii.
p. 195.
l83
282 vol. vi. p. 156. Survey, bk. ii. p. 160.
Journal of Royal Arclurolopcal Institute,
Newcourt,
-."
vol. i.
p. 461.
78 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

XIV. All Hallows, Barking.

There were eight churches of All Hallows
in London this one, which is near the Tower,
;

became the property of the Abbess and Convent

of Barking, and was converted into a vicarage
about 1389. Hence it was called All Hallows,
Barking, to distinguish it from the other churches
of that title. It was formerly surrounded
by a
large churchyard or cemetery, on the north side
of which stood the celebrated chapel of Our

Ladye of All Hallows, Barking, frequently des

cribed as Our Ladye Barking, which was founded
by Richard the First. 285
Newcourt. in the appendix to his Reper-
280
torium, very remarkable document
gives a
about this chapel, but I at once saw that his
version must be inaccurate, so I collated it with
the Register of Gilbert, Bishop of London, 1436-
1446, from which he took it; and had it again
by one of the transcribers at the Public
verified
Record Office.
The entries in the Register extend for a few
lines on fol. 194; the remainder of the leaf is

left blank; and the entries commence again on

fol. 195. The last entry on fol. 194 is dated
18 January, 1440, and the first on fol. 195,
4 March, 23 Henry (VI.) i.e. 1445. On the
blank space of nearly two pages thus intervening,
the document in question is entered, evidently
at a later date, and by a different hand, and in

very bad ink.

Newcourt gives it thus :

"

LTniversis &c. Nos miseratione divina

Adrianus Tartarorum episcopi, Domini Papse legati
&c."

The correct reading is as follows :

Sancte
"

Universis Matris ecclesise filiis

presentes literas inspecturis, nos miseratione divina

. . . Civitatis novae, Johannes Carpentoran,
Adrianus Tartarorum episcopi, Domini Pape
Legati, salutem &c.
"To all the sons of
Holy Mother Church who
shall see these present letters, We, by Divine
Mercy . . .
Bishop of Cittanova, John, Bishop
285
Maitland, Hist, and Sinvey of London, 1756, p. 1053.
286
V. I, p. 765.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 79

of Carpentras, Adrian, Bishop of the Tartars, wish

eternal health in the Lord.
It has been given to us to understand by the
"

most illustrious King of England, Edward, the

in the
son of King Henry, that the chapel
in London,
cemetery of Barking Church situated
was founded in a wonderful manner by the brave
as also how
Richard, formerly King of England ;
the Welsh invaded England, in spite of the
and laid waste
precautions of the said Henry,
the country on all sides, slew men and women,
and children in their cradles, and horrible to tell,

killed with theirswords women lying in childbirth ;

in a
moreover that they took the Isle of Ely
hostile manner, and held it with a strong force
for a year, and at last, when the time suited them,
returned unmolested to Wales. The same Edward,
at that time a youth, at the sight of so many
and insults, tending to the
disasters, wrongs,
disinheritance of his father,and the destruction
of the whole of England, wept bitterly, and gave
and anguish
way to such a flood of bitter grief
of heart, that his body was more especially
affected, and throwing himself
half dead on his

couch, he believed that he would never entirely

recover his health. But one night asking the
aid of Marye, the Mother of God, he devoutly

besought her her loving clemency to inspire

in

him by some divine revelation, through some

vision during the night, how the English might
most quickly be revenged on the Welsh. And
as it came to pass, whilst he slept, a most lovely
Maid adorned with the flowers of all virtues,

the Glorious Virgin Mother of God, by whose

are helped, who by
prayers the Christian people
the ineffable cooperation of the Holy Ghost

brought the Eternal

Unfading Flower, and
to a vision of the night
him as if in
appeared
saying Edward, friend of God, why dost thou
:

cry out? Know for certain that during the

lifetime of thy father the Welsh cannot be entirely
checked or conquered by the English; and this
on account of the vile sin and heavy extortions
of thy father. But do thou go very early to
morrow morning to a certain Jew, by name
8o Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Marlibrun, the most cunning limner (picturae

artificem) in the whole world, who dwells at
Billingsgate in London, and engage him to make
thee a portrait of me as thou seest me now;

by divine inspiration he will paint two counten

ances in the picture, one he will limn exceedingly
like to my Son Jesus, the other resembling me
in every feature, so that no one will be able
with truth to point out any defect whatsoever
in it. This picture when it is
thoroughly finished,
I would have thee endeavour to send, as soon
as possible, to the chapel in the cemetery of
Barking Church, situated near the Tower of

London, and cause it to be fairly framed on the

north side. If thou dost so,
with certainty know
that greater wonders in thy favour will forthwith
be seen. For as soon as the said Marlibrun
shall have gazed thoughtfully on the expression
of the faces within the said chapel, he will soon
be so drawn to the love of heavenly things, that
together with his wife Juda, he will be converted
to the Catholic Faith, and afterwards will reveal
to thee many secrets of the Jews which they
for
are to be punished. And do thou, Edward, on
beholding this miracle make thy vow to Almighty

God, that as long as thou livest and art in England,

thou times every year, visit this said
wilt, five

picture in honour of the Mother of Christ, and

that as often as it needs it, thou wilt repair this
same chapel, and support the same. And this
spot deserves indeed thy homage. For as soon
as thou shalt have made this vow on bended

knee, and fulfilled it substantially, according to

thy ability,whatever part of the world thou
in

mayst be, thou wilt become most victorious over

all people, and invincible ; and at the death of

thy father, thou wilt be King of England, con

queror of Wales, and lord of the whole of Scotland.
Moreover, believe me, that any righteous monarch
of England, or perchance* any one else, who
shall devoutly make this vow, and substantially
fulfil it according to his power, will ever be
victorious over the Welsh and Scots, and in
vincible/ With these words she disappeared.
The Prince on awaking and coming to himself,
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye, 81

bethought him of his dream, and, as it were,

almost ravished in spirit, began to wonder. Never
theless he fulfilled everything that had been

prescribed to him during

his sleep. Moreover,
in our presence, and in that of many nobles
both of England and Scotland, the aforesaid
PMward, of accord, made oath, that up
his own
to this time he had found everything, that had
been shown him in his sleep, come to pass
exactly as it was foretold. Wherefore, desirous
that the said chapel be attended with fitting
honours and perpetually venerated by the faithful
of Christ, to all who shall be truly penitent, and
having confessed their sins, shall go to this chapel
for the sake of devotion and prayer, and shall make
donation towards the lights, repairs, and ornaments
of the same ; and, moreover, to all who shall say

the Lord Prayer and Angelic Salutation for the

s

souls of the noble Richard, formerly King of

England, whose heart lies buried under the high

altar in that chapel, and for those of all the
faithful departed, as often as, and whensoever

they shall say the same, We trusting in the mercy

of GodAlmighty, and the merits and authority
of His Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, do
each of us mercifully grant in the Lord a several
pardon of forty days (singuli singulas quadragenas
dieruni) of the penance enjoined them, provided
the local Diocesan shall ratify this our indulgence.
In witness of all which we have thought fit to
"

confirm this present letter with our seals.

Given at Norham, where the Parliament of
"

20 day of
England, as of Scotland, is held, the
May, in the year of our Lord one thousand two
287
hundred and ninety-one."

I give this document as I find it. The name

of the Bishop of Civitas-nova has perished in
the Register, but Gams mentions Simon as Bishop
of Cittanova, in Istria, in 1284-1293 ;
2SS;
and
after much research, I am unable to identify
either Bishop of Carpentras, or Adrian,
John,
Bishop of the Tartars. The latter would have

287
Bishop Gilbert s Register, fol. 194.
288
Series Episcoporum, p. 770 also for Carpentras, p. 530
: ; and Gallia Chris
tiana, t. 1. col. 905 :
Paris, 1715.
G
82 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

been a Franciscan, but although Wadding and

the Orbis Seraphicus give copious details about
the Tartar missions of that period, they do not
mention Adrian.
In 1288, Argon, King of the Tartars, sends
to Pope Nicholas, as envoys, Bersauma, bishop in
partibus, the Noble man Sabedin, Thomas de
Anfusis, with Ugues as interpreter.
289
On the
23rd of August, 1290, Nicholas the Fourth
writes from Civita Vecchia to Argon, King of the

Tartars, respecting the recovery of the Holy

Land, and says that he is exciting all the Catholic
Kings and Princes of the earth to a new crusade,
&c., and that his most dear son Edward, the
illustrious King of England, has already assumed
the Cross, &c. 290 On the 2nd of December he
writes to King Edward to receive kindly Andrew,
formerly called Zaganus Bascarellus de Gisulfo, a
a citizen of Genoa, and Moracius, the messengers
of Argon, the illustrious King of the Tartars,
&c. 291 On the 3ist of the same month, there is
another brief from Nicholas the Fourth to the
King, asking him to receive kindly Sabedin,
292
messenger of Argon, King of the Tartars.
I have been unable to find any mention of
the three bishops, Legates of our Lord the Pope,
but that fact does not disprove their mission ;

whereas the evidences I have cited would go far

to establish that Nicholas the Fourth had sent

legates to Edward the First and other Princes.

This document exhibits a confusion of ideas
in regard of actual facts, but due allowance must
be made for impressions formed by foreigners,
even men of position and education, during a
hurried visit to England in the thirteenth century.
Even two centuries later, Leo de Rosmital, brother
of the Queen of Bohemia, one of the most distin
guished men in that country, where he was Chief
Justice, and who spent two years on his travels

through Europe, from 1465 1467, has left a

289 Orbis Seraphicus per Fr. Dominicum de Gubernatis a Sospitellis. Romte,

1689, t.
p. 365.
i.

290 Ibid.
p. 371.
- 91
Fcedera, vol. i.
pt, iii.
p. 76.
2y2
Ibid.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 83

most interesting account of England, but from

which it appears that Dover Castle was the
strongest citadel in Christianity, and had been
built by devils a cacodamonibus extructa / 293
Yet his account of the building of Dover Castle
does not necessarily invalidate his other state
ments.
Testing this document by collateral evidence,
it
appears that :

1. The Welsh never held Ely for a year, and

then left it at their own convenience. They were

constantly making predatory incursions across the
borders during the reign of Henry the Third, and
294
many good lives were
lost, but Ely was held in
I2 63 1265 by the barons and their outlawed
commonly known
"

followers, as the Disinherited,"

who ravaged and laid waste the counties of Hun

295
tingdon and Cambridge.
2. Edward the First finally conquered the Welsh
in 1281 1282.

3. Stow, even, mentions

the tradition about
the heart of Richard the First being buried in
290
this chapel underneath the high altar. It is

impossible to conjecture what foundation there

was for this fable, unless it were the very docu
ment in question.
Richard desired to be buried at Fonteverault,
and bequeathed his heart to the cathedral of
Rouen Ecclesise Rothomagensi quia Norman-
"

niam prsecordialiter diligebat, cor suum inexpug-

nabile delegavit," says Matthew of Paris. 297 Ger-
vase of Dover, a contemporary historian, describing
the obsequies of Richard, relates that "cor ejus
grassitudine praestans, Rothomagum delatum est,
298
et honorifice sepultum." It was enclosed in a

magnificent shrine of silver and gold, according to

Guillaume le Breton :

Cujus cor Rothomagensis ecclesiae clerus

"

argento clausit et auro, sanctorumque inter cor-

2<J3
Iter Leonis de Rosmital, 14651467, Bibliothek ties Literarischen Vereins in

Stuttgart, 1844, c. vii. p. 37.

294
Brady, Complete History of England. London, 1685, vol. i.
p. 605, et seq.
2y5 Ibid. vol. ii.

sa(i
Survey, bk. ii.
p. 32.
7 Abbrev. Chron. Rolls Edit.
p. 218.
2<J

t. iii.

Ap. Twisden, Decem

2y8
Scriptores, col. 1628.
84 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

pora, in cede sacrata compositum, nimio clevotus

honorat honore ;
ut tanta ecclesiae devotio tanta
299
patenter innuat in vita quatum dilexerat ilium."

The Chroniques de Normandie say that the

Sepulture Royale d Argent, called in the edition
by Le Misgissier, the Chasse, which had contained
the heart of Richard pour la rangon du Roy
"

Sainct Loys de France quant il fut prisonnier aux

Sarrazins, fut despeces et vendue."

The heart, however, never left Rouen. On

the 3ist July, 1838, it was found enclosed within
two boxes of lead ; the inner one was lined with
a thin leaf of silver, that time had in a great part
decayed, and thus inscribed within, in rudely
graven characters
+ HIC : IACET :

COR : RICAR
DI : REGIS :

ANGLORUM. 300

4. The date of this document is correct. On

the loth of May, 1291, a Parliament of England
and Scotland met at Norham. The subject of
debate was the accession to the crown of Scot
land. It continued, by adjournments, until the

2nd of June, and was then prorogued till the

1 4th of October.
1
Norham is given in the docu
ment as Northm, which Newcourt mistook for
Northampton !

According to this account, the celebrated

image of our Ladye of Barking must have been a
painting or picture for pictures artifex cannot be
;

construed as a statuary.
Edward the Fourth gave licence to his cousin
John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, to found there
a Brotherhood for a master and brethren, which
he richly endowed, and appointed it to be called
the King s chapel or chantry, in capella Beatce
Maria; de Barking.- This brotherhood, together
with two offerings to Our Ladye of Barking, were
3
inadvertently inserted under Barking.
299 i n vita Phil. Arg. Depping, Hist, de la Normandie. Rouen, 1835, * "

P- 393-
aoo
Archceologia, vol. xxxix. p. 202, et seq.
1
Parry, The Parliaments and Councils of England. Lond. 1839,1x35.
*
Stow, bk. ii. p. 33.
3
See ante, p. 3.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. $5

On the three Templars,

27th January, 1310,
one of whom was Brother John de Stoke, a
were
serving brother of seventeen years standing,
examined by the inquisitors in the chapel of our
4
Blessed Lady of Barking Church.
the
In the Privy Purse expenses of Henry
Seventh :

5
For offering at Our Lady Berking, 6*.
" 8</."

In this churchyard was buried the martyr

Fisher. "He was
Bishop of Rochester, John
says his biographer,
on Tuesday the
"

martyred,"
of June,
2 ist the feast of St. Alban, the
1535,
His body, after laying
proto-martyr of England.
nude all day on the scaffold, was, towards eight of
the clock in the evening, carried on a halberd by
two of the watchers, and buried in a churchyard
there,hard by, called All Hallows Barking, where
on the north side of the church, hard by the wall,
their halberds, and
they digged a grave with
tumbled the body of this holy prelate, all naked
and flat upon his belly without either shirt or
Christian
other accustomed things belonging to a
man s and so covered
burial,
it quickly with
this holy
Subsequently the remains of
6
earth."

were moved from the churchyard to St.

martyr
Peter s, in the Tower of London. 7
It is either to Our Ladye of Barking or Our
to the former,
Ladye of Graces, but most probably
letter written by Sir Thomas
that the following
after he had been made a Privy
More, shortly
to Fisher refers. Both are
Councillor, Bishop
described as near the Tower.
"

Most unwillingly

did I come to Court, as every one knows, and the

me in joke. And
King himself sometimes tells

to this I seem to sit as awkwardly there, as

day
sits in a saddle. But
one who never rode before ^

our Prince, th:ugh from being in his

I am far

is so affable and kind to all, that

especial favour,
ever so diffident, may find
every one, let him be
after
some reason for imagining that he loves him,

* London, 1842 p- 2 3-
Addison, History of the Knights Templars.
;

5
Excerpta Historica, p. 130.
and Death of the Reverend John fisher, Bishop of Rochester.
Baily, Life
Edition. Lond. 1740, p. 231.
7
Weever, p. 500.
86 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the manner of the London matrons, who are

persuaded that the image of our Blessed Ladye

near the Tower smiles upon them, as they look
closely at it whilst they pray before it. I am
neither so fortunate, in reality, to perceive such
favourable tokens, nor of so sanguine a tempera
ment as even to flatter myself that I do so. Yet
such are his Majesty s virtues and learning, and
such his daily increasing industry in both, that the
more and more I see his Majesty make progress
ingood and truly royal accomplishments, the less
and less do I feel this Court life to hang heavily
8
upon me."

XV. Our Ladye de Clypeo.

In the Atlas Marianus, Guppenberg enume
rates Our Ladye de Clypeo in London. This is
the image of our Ladye which King Arthur had
painted on his shield, and which Guppenberg
conjectures to have been "

exposed somewhere,
9
probably in London." I shall describe it in its

proper place.

XVI. Our Ladye of Cony-Hope Lane.

There is Cony-Hope Lane, of old time so
called, of a sign of three conies hanging over a
poulterer s stall, at the end of the lane. In this
lane anciently was a chapel dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin. So in the Bishop of London s
Register of Wills Capdla Beatce Maria, de Conyng
:

10
Hope Lane.

XVII. St. Dunstan s in the East.

Sir Bartholomew James, alderman, mayor in

1479, desires in his will that, after his month s

mind, the four great tapers which he had given
should be broken and made into small tapers,
every piece weighing one pound, which he willed
should be set before the images of the Holy
Trinity and of our Blessed Ladye, in the church
of St. Dunstan, to burn at due and convenient
times and seasons. 11

*
Stapleton, Tres Thorns, ed princeps. Duaci. 1588 in Vit. T. Mori, p. 97.
9
No. DL p. 593.
10
Stow, bk. iii. p. 33.
1J
Ibid. bk. ii. p. 43.
 Old English Devotion to our filessect Ladye. 87

XVII.Dunstan s in the West.

St.

In church there was a celebrated gild of

this

our Ladye, as appears from donations made by

Henry VIII.
IT Henry VIII. 1519.

August. To the Fraternity of Our Ladye s

12
Gild at St. Dunstan s in the West, 4O^.
12 Henry VIII. 1520.
October. To the Fraternity of Our Ladye s
13
Gild at St. Dunstan s in the West, 2/.

XIX. St. Magnus, near London Bridge.

In church (as most other churches had
this

theirs) was a most famous gild of our Ladye de

Salve Regina. An account whereof was brought
into the King, upon an Act of Parliament in the

reign of King Edward the Third, when some

or
special cognizance was taken of these gilds
fraternities throughout England. And that we
may see a little, continues Stow, the manner and
intent of these devotions, I shall show what this

was from the certificate thereof offered by

gild
this fraternity as I found it in the Tower
Records.
"La de notre Dame de Salve
Fraternite

Regina, de Seint Thomas

et en Eglise de Seint
Magne sur le Fount de Loundres, donct
les

Mestres sount a present John Sandherst,

Walter
atte Well, Gilbert Sporiere, et Estephen Bartelot."

in English thus
17 Edward III. 13431344,
:

Be it remembered that Rauf Capelyn du

"

Bailliff, Will. Double, fishmonger, Roger Lo\yher,

chancellor, Henry Boseworth, vintner, Stephen

of the better
Lucas, stockfishmonger, and other
near the Bridge
of the parish of St. Magnus,
of London, of their great devotion, and to the
honour of God and His glorious Mother our

Ladye Marye the Virgin, began, and caused to

be made, a chauntry, to sing an anthem of our

And
Ladye, called Salve Regina, every evening.
thereupon ordained five burning
wax lights at
the time of the said anthem, in the honour^ of
the five principal joys of our Ladye aforesaid;
and for exciting the people to devotion at such
13
Ibid. p. 1543-
12
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. v. iii. pt. 2. p. 153.7.
Old hngtish Devotion to our Blessed Ladyc.

an hour, the more to merit to their souls. And

thereupon many other good people of the same
parish, seeing the great honesty of the said
service and devotion, proffered to be aiders and
partners to support the said lights and the said
anthem to be continually sung, paying to every
person every week a halfpenny. And so that
hereafter, with the gift that the people shall give
to the sustentation of the said light and anthem,
there shall be to find a chaplain singing in the
said church for all the benefactors of the said
light and anthem. And after the said Rauf
Chapelyn, by his testament made the i8th June,
the year of the said King the 23 (1349), devised
3 s. by quit rent issuing out of one tenement in
the parish of St. Leonard of Eastcheap." 14
But the piety of the citizens did not always
wax About the year 1498, there was
fervent.
a visitation and Stow has recorded
;

"How matters stood in one

parish, namely,
that of St. Magnus, with relation to the above
mentioned Articles of Enquiry, the presentment
following will declare ; where, at a visitation of the
Ordinary, were fourteen substantial parishioners
made inquisitors, who found these articles.

"Item. We fynde, that for defaute of good

provysion, both of the chirchwardeyns and also
of the masters of the Salve, neyther the preystys
nor clarkys that ben retayned for the chyrche will
not come to our Lady Masse, nor Salve.
"

Nor the clarkeys and preystys that ben re

tayned by the maysters of the Salve wil come to
Masse or Matins in the quyer, where it might be
wel brought about of the maysters of the Salve
and the wardeyns of the chyrche wolde, for the
mayntenyng of Goddys servyce, at the time of
the receyvynge of such preystys and clarkys, gyve
them charge, for as moche as they have so pro-
fytable and reasonable salery, that they al sholde
as wel attende upon Masse, Matins, and Even

song, as unto our Lady Masse and Salve, and

other servyce the whych to do sholde encrease
;

14
Survey bk. ,
ii.
p, 175.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 89

in the preystys and clarkys gud custume of vertu,

15
and grete encrease of dyvyne servyce."

XX. St. Martin.

ii
May, 1259.
Master John of Gloucester, the King s mason,
and the wardens of the works at Westminster, are
ordered to supply five figures of kings, cut in
free-stone, and a certain stone to be placed
under
the feet of an image of the Blessed Virgin Marye,
to the wardens of the works of the church of
St. Martin, London, for the same works, of the
King s gift.
lc
Writ tested Westminster. May n.

St. Stephens.
In 136843 Edward III. a gild, called the
Little Fraternity of our Ladye in the church of

St.Stephen, in Colman Street, was founded by

William Molton, mason, John Lenham, brewer,
John Mushach, smith, John Smith, currier, Thomas
Belchamber, leather-dyer, and other good people
of the said parish, of their great devotion, and
in honour of our Ladye, to find five wax candles
upon one branch, of 31 pounds of wax, hanging
before an image of our Ladye in the said church
upon the beam ; each brother and sister paying
1 2 d. yearly.

This is the first constitution of the gild :

"Fyrst
All the bretheren and sustren everich
the Assumption of
yer ayenes the self Feste of
our Ladi Seint Marye shul ben clothed of one
sute of covenable clothings that falleth to her
astat. But yif ony shall be of the kompaignee,
because of poortee, ne may noyht make gree,
yet he shal have atte lest
a hode of the suyte,
in token that he is a broder of the fraternite,
so that he be holden broder or suster of gode
condicion and honeste. The which day of the
Assumption the foresaid bretheren and sustren
shall have a solempne Messe in the honour of
the foreseid songen in the church of
Marye
St. Stephen At which Messe al the
foreseid.
foreseid brethren and sustren up peine of two
16
15
Survey, bk. v. p. 29. Close Roll. 43 Henry III.
90 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

pound wax shalle be present,

begynnyng fro the
of the foreseid Messe to the end and at the :

Messe in dew tyme everych broder and suster

a penye shal ofifre. The which Messe y-songen
al the foreseyd bretheren and sustren shal go

togydren to a certeyn place be her Maistres

which be for the
tyme assigned. In the which
place schullen ete togedryn, on her owne
alle

purse, or at leste drinkes. And after the etyng

and drinkyng (whether it be) the foreseid mais-
tres his accompte for the time shall yelde up in
17
gode manner and honeste."

The Temple Church.

This beautiful church was consecrated by
Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, during his
visit to England in 1185, and who died at the

siege of Acre, in 1 1
90. The following inscription
was placed over the door leading into the
cloister :

I- ANNO AB INCARNATIONS DOMINI MCLXXXV

DEDICATA EST HEC ECCLESIA IN HONORE
BEATE MARIE A DOMINO ERACLIO DEI GRATIA *

SANCTE RESURRECTIONIS ECCLESIE PATRIARCHA

IIII IDVS FEBRVARII QUI EAM ANNATIM PETEN-
TIBUS DE INIVNTA SIBI PENITENTIA LX DIES
INDVLSIT. 18

The English Knights Templars formed "a dis

tinguished part of this noble and gallant order.

The Rule of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus
Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was drawn
up by St. Bernard, and sanctioned by the Council
of Troyes in ii27. 19
The Grand Priors, or Provincial Masters, took
an oath to defend with their lips, by force of
arms, with all their strength and their life the

mysteries of the Faith, &c. . . . and the per

petual virginity before childbirth, in, and after
childbirth, of the Blessed Virgin Marye, the

17
Stow, bk. iii.
p. 62.
18
A facsimile of this inscription is given by Stow, bk. iii. p. 272 ;
and by Addison,
History of the Knights Tmnplars :
London, 1842, frontispiece.
18 x. col.
Labbe, Concilia, t. 923.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 91

daughter of Joachim and

Anne of the tribe of
David. 20
Juda, and of the race of King

The Tower of London.

1. St. Peter ad Vincula.
In 1241 the King commands the keeper of
the Tower works to have whitewashed the chancel
of St. Marye in the Church of St. Peter, &c. ;
and
the image of our Blessed Ladye (Mariola), with
its tabernacle, to be coloured anew, and refreshed

with good colours.

Tested Windsor, 10 December 25 Hemy III.,
21
1245.

2. Chapel of St. John the Evangelist.

The same to the same.
"We command you ... to whitewash the
whole chapel of St. John the Evangelist in the

great tower. And to make in the said chapel three

glass windows, one, to wit,

on the north part, with
a certain small figure of Marye holding her child."
22
Tested, same place and date.

3. The White Chapel.

Similar orders are also given for a glass
window with our Blessed Ladye. 23

Our Ladye of Graces, near the Tower.

In 1348 there was a great plague London.
in

It increased to such an extent, that, want of

for

space in the churchyards to bury the dead, one

John Cory, clerk, procured of Nicholas, Prior of
the Holy Trinity without Ealdgate (Aldgate) a
toft of land near East Smithfield, for the burial
of those who died, with the condition that it
should be called the churchyard of the Holy
Trinity. By the aid of devout citizens it was
enclosed with a wall, and consecrated by Ralph
Stratford, Bishop of London. Innumerable bodies
were buried here, and a little chapel was erected
to the honour of God.

20 Antv. 171 also Manrique,

Henriquez, Menologium Cisterciense, 1639, p. ;

Annales Cisterc. :
Lugd. 1942, p. 187.
21 III. m. 20.
Librate Roll. 25 Henry
22
Ibid.
23
Ibid.
92 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

During a storm at sea, and when in great

danger, Edward vow to build
the Third made a
a monastery to the honour of God and Our Ladye
of Graces, if God would grant him to come safe
to land. He therefore built on this spot a
monastery, which he caused to be called East-
Minster, and placed in it an abbot and commu
nity of the Cistercian Order.
To them he gave all the messuages and
appurtenances at Tower Hill which he had of
John Cory aforesaid, in pure and perpetual alms,
desiring this house to be called the Royal Free
Chapel of St. Marye of Graces, by letters patent,
tested at Westminster March 20, in the twenty-
fourth year of our reign in England, and the
24
eleventh of our reign in France I35O.
They are to this effect :

Edward, &c.
"

"Whilst with devout consideration we reflect

on the various dangers to which on sundry occa

sions, as well by land and on sea, we have been,
to all human appearance, exposed without any

hope of escape, and on the lavish favours, with

which, in these perils, the clemency of Christ on
our invoking Him and the most Glorious Virgin
His Mother, has mercifully prevented us, our
heart burns within us, and we are inflamed with
love for Jesus Christ our Lord Himself, and our
Ladye His most beloved Mother Mary aforesaid.
Desiring humbly to arrange something to their
praise and glory, in memory of such favours,
hoping that He, Who with so great favours mer
cifully prevented us, will always, through the
affectionate mediation of His Mother, mercifully
follow us up with an infusion of heavenly graces.
Out of this consideration therefore, we have
determined to found and endow, in the new
cemetery of the Holy Trinity near our Tower of
London, a House for the Monks of the Cistercian
Order, which we will to be called the Free Chapel
of Blessed Marye of Graces, to offer the sacrifice
of praise and thanksgiving to God and our chief
Protectress, the aforesaid most Blessed Marye,
in a special manner. Know ye therefore," &c.
24 23
Mon. Angl. V. p. 717. Ibid.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 93

in the
Those letters patent are recapitulated
charter of Richard II., dated Nottingham, July 3,
in which he confirms the
apparently in 1388 ;

foundation of his grandfather Edward, and recites

25
and confirms the other donations.
Nicholas de Lovaigne, knight, by his will
Sir
to be
dated aoth September, 1375, wills his body
buried in the Abbey Church of Penshurst, other
wise in the Abbey of Our Lady of Grace, in
26
London, near the Tower.

Our Ladye in West Cheap.

A cross used to stand in West Cheap, of
which Stow says: "In the year 1581, the 2ist
of June, in the night, the lowest images round
about the same cross (being of Christ s resurrec
tion, of the Blessed Virgin Marye, King
Edward
the Confessor, and such like) were broken and
defaced. Whereupon proclamation was made,
thatwhoso would bewray the doers thereof should
have forty crowns, but nothing came to light.
The image of the Blessed Virgin, at that time,
robbed of her Son, and her arms broken, by
which she staid Him on her knees, her whole
body was also haled with ropes and left ready

to fall; but was in the year 1595 again fastened

and repaired. And in the year 1596, about
Bartholomew tide, new son, misshapen (as
a
born out of time) all naked, was laid in her
arms, the other images remaining
broken as
before. On the east side of the same cross, the

steps being taken thence,

under the image of
Christ s resurrection defaced, was then set up a
curious wrought tabernacle of grey marble, and
27
in the same an alabaster image of Diana." . . .

About the 5th January, 1601, the image of

our Lady was again defaced, by plucking off

her crown, and almost her head, taking from her
28
her naked child, and stabbing her in the breast.

GOD S HOUSES.
One example must suffice.

II. Sir Richard Whittington, who was four

times Lord Mayor, built a College of the Holy
27 28
Ibid. p. 36.
26
Test. Vet. p. 98. Surrey, bk. iii.
p. 35.
94 Old English Djvotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Ghost and Saint Marye, and a God s House for

thirteen poor men, one of them to be the tutor.
The MS. Constitutions are in the archives of
the Mercer s Company.
This is the ordinance in regard of prayers
Every tutour and poor
"

folk, every day first

whan they rise fro their

bedds, kneeling upon
their knees, sey a Pater nosier and an Are Maria
with special and herty recommendacion-making
of the foreseid Richard Whyttington and Alice
to God and our Blessed Ladye Maidyn Marye.
And other times of the day whan he may best
and most commody have leisure thereto, for the
stant of al the souls abovesaid, say three or two
sauters of our Lady at the least that is : to say,
threies seven Arc Marias, with XV Pater nosters,
and three he be letted with
Credcs. But if

febleness or any other reasonable cawse, one in

the day at the least, in case it may be that is :

to say, after the Messe, or whan Complyn is

don, they come togidder within the College about

the tomb of the aforesaid Rich. Whyttington and
Alice,and then they that can sey, shal sey for
the souls of the said Richard and Alice, and
for the souls of all Christen people, this psalm
dc Profwidis, with the Versicles and Oriosons
that longeth thereto. And they that can shal
sey three Ave Marias, three Pater nosters, and
oon Crede. And after this doon, the tutour, or
oon of the eldest men of theym, shal sey openly
in English, God have mercy on our founders
souls and al Chrysten. And they that stond
29
about shal answer and sey Amen."

ALMSGIVING.
On a field to the east side of Houndsditch
there were some small cottages two stories high,
and little garden plots behind, for poor bed-ridden
people for in that street dwelt none other
built by some Prior of the Holy Trinity, to whom
that ground belonged. "In
my youth,"
continues
Stow, remember devout people, as well men
"I

as women, of this city were accustomed often

times, especially on Fridays, weekly, to walk that
59
Survey, bk. iii.
p. 4.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 95

way purposely, and there to bestow their chari

table alms, every poor man or woman lying in
bed within their window, which was towards the
street, open so
low that every man might see
them a clean linen cloth lying in their window,
:

and a pair of beads, to show that there lay a

30
bed-rid body, unable but to pray only."

HOSPITALS.
In London and the suburbs there were five

hospitals called after our

Blessed Ladye.

1. St. Mary in Barking

Was provided for poor priests and others,
men and women in the city of London that were
fallen into frenzy or loss of their memory, until

such time as they should recover. It is now

31
suppressed.

2. St. Mary Bethlehem.

Themagnificent hospital in Southwark, com
monly called Bedlam, commemorates the pious
foundation of Simon Fitz-Marye in 1247. He
had been one of the sheriffs of London in the
preceding year. It was originally founded for a

priory of canons with brethren

and sisters ; and
Edward the Third, in the fourteenth year of his
reign, 1340 1341, granted a protection for the
brethren militia Bcata Maria de Bethlehem in the
It was after a hospital for dis
City of London.
32
tracted people.
This is the foundation deed as given by Stow :

all, &c.,
"To Simon the son of Marye sendeth
greeting in our Lord.
Where among other things, and before other
"

lands, the high altitude of the heavenly counsels,

marvelously wrought by some readier devotion, it
of which things
ought to be more worshipped :

the mortal sickness (after the fall of our first

father Adam) hath taken the beginning of this
new repairing. Therefore, indeed, it beseemeth
worthy that the place in which the Son of
God is

become Man, and hath proceeded from the

Virgin s womb, which is increaser and beginner of
32
31
Ibid, p. 20. Ibid. bk. ii.
p. 94.
Survey, bk. ii.
p. 23. Appendix,
96 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

man s redemption, namely ought to be with reve

rence worshipped, and with beneficial portions to
be increased. Therefore it is that the said Simon,
son of Marye, having special and singular devotion
to the Church of the Glorious Virgin at Beth

lehem, where the same Virgin of her brought forth

our Saviour Incarnate, and lying in the cratch
(i.e., manger),
and with her own milk nourished;
and where the same Child to us then born, the
the new
chivalry of the heavenly company sang
hymn, Gloria in excelsis Deo. The same time, the
increaser of our health (as a King, and His
Mother as a Queen) willed to be worshipped of

kings; a new star going before them at the honour

and reverence of the same Child and His most
meek Mother, and to the exaltation of my most
noble Lord, Henry King of England, whose wife
and child the foresaid Mother of God and her

only Son have in their keeping and protection :

and to the manifold increase of this City of

London in which I was born; and also for the

health of my soul, &c. given, granted, and

Have
by this my present charter have confirmed to God
and to the Church of St. Marye of Bethlehem all

my lands, (here follows the enumeration).

&c."

The foresaid church of Bethlehem lo have and to

hold in free and perpetual alms. And also to
make there a priory, and to ordain a prior and
canons, brothers, and also sisters, when Jesus
Christ shall enlarge His grace upon it. And in the
same place the Rule and Order of the said
Church of Bethlehem solemnly professing, which
shall bear the token of a star openly on their
copes and mantles of profession, and to say
Divine Service then for the souls aforesaid, and
all Christian souls. . . . And in token of subjec
tion and reverence, the said place in London
without Bishopsgate, shall pay yearly in the said
city a mark sterling at Easter to the Bishop of
Bethlehem, his successors or his messengers, in
the name of a pension. And if the faculties or

goods of the said place (our Lord granting)

happen to grow more, the said place shall pay
more in the name
of pension, at the said term, to
the mother church of Bethlehem. This gift and
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 97

confirmation of my deed, and the putting-to of

my seal for me and mine heires I have steadfastly

made strong, the year of our Lord one thousand
two hundred forty seven, the Wednesday after the
feast of St. Luke the Evangelist; these being
witnesses, Peter the son of Allen, then Mayor of
33
London, and many more."
The spot on which this hospital stood was
called Old Bethlehem ; now Liverpool Street.
In 1644, it was under consideration to enlarge
the old hospital, but the situation was judged
unfavourable: in 1675 tne new hospital of Beth-
lem was commenced near London Wall, to the
south of the lower quarter of Little Moorfields;
subsequently it was transferred to the other side of
the river, where it now forms one of the chief
features of Southwark. 34
The ancient seal represented the Assumption
of our Blessed Ladye. 35

3. St. Mary Spital, or the New Hospital of Our

Ladye.
This Priory and Hospital of our Blessed
Ladye, commonly called Saint Marye Spittle, or

Spital, was founded by Walter Brune, a citizen

of London, and Rosia, his wife, in 1197. It was
dedicated by William, Bishop of London, to the
honour of Jesus Christ, and His Mother, the
perpetual Virgin Marye, by the name of Domus
Dei et Beatse Mariae extra Bishopgate. In 1235
it was refounded, and as a work de novo, and
not relatively to any other foundation, received
the title as above. 36 It surrendered to Henry

VIIL, and besides the ornaments of the Church,

and other goods pertaining to the Hospital, there
were found standing nine score beds well furnished
for the receipt of the poor of charity. For,
continues Stow, it was a hospital of great relief. 37
In the yard of St. Mary Spital stood the
celebrated Pulpit Cross.
The later common seal represents our Blessed

53
Bk. ii.
p. 94. I have been unable to collate Stow s version with the original.
34
Mon. Angl. vi. 621.
35
Ilearne s MS. Diaries, vol. cxxii. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
I7
Mon. Angl. t. vi. p. 623. Bk. ii.
p. 97.
H
98 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Ladye under a canopy, between two religious

38
men, and surrounded by Cherubim.

4. St. Mary within Cripplegate was founded in

1329 by William Elsing, mercer, as a Hospital

for one hundred blind men of the City of
London. 39

5. St. Mary Rounceval, or Roncevalles, near

Charing Cross.
William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, having
amongst other estates, given several tenements
near Charing Cross to the Prior of Rouncevall,
or de Rosida Valle, in the diocese of Pampeluna
in Navarre, temp. Henry III., a Hospital or
Chapel of St. Marye which was the chief house
in England belonging to that foreign priory was
40
erected on the site.

1614, Northumberland House, now a

In
mansion of the past, was erected, and according
to Newcourt, out of the ruins of this Hospital. 41

THE TWELVE GREAT LlVERY COMPANIES.

Our Blessed Ladye was the Patroness of four
of them ; to wit :

1. The Skinners Company, which was in

corporated in the first year of Edward III., 1327,
and made into a Brotherhood in the eighteenth
42
of Richard 1394 1395-
II.,
2. The Clothworkers Company, which was
incorporated April 12, 1482, by the appellation
of the Fraternity of the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Marye of the Sheermen of the City of
London. 43 Their annual feast and entertainment
of meat and drink was held in a competent place
on the festival of the Assumption of our Blessed
44
Ladye.

38
Mon. Angl. t. ii. p. 97.
39
Stow, Append, p. 20.
40 Mon. Angl. c. vi. p. 677.
41 v. i.
Repertorium p. 693.
42
Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London. Lond. 1836,
v. ii.
p. 299.
43
Ibid. p. 643 ; and Stow, Bk. v. p. 198.
44
Herbert, p. 651.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 99

The Drapers, as the Mother of the

Lamb.
3.
45
They were incorporated in i43-
46
4. The Mercers.

LUDGERSHALL In 1250 the Constable of Marlborough Castle

CASTLE. is ordered ... to place an image of Blessed
Marye, with her child, in the King s chapel, in
the Castle of Ludgershall.
47
Writ tested Clarendon, July iQ.
In 1251 the Constable of Marlborough Castle
is ordered ... to make an image of Blessed
Marye, with her child, in the chapel of St.
Leonard
in Ludgershall Castle.
48
Writ tested Marlborough, July 3-

LUDLOW. There was a very remarkable example of a

which is
pendant pix or ciborium at Ludlow,
described as "an image of our Ladye of Pytte
49
for y c Sacrament."

LYNN EPISCOPI, i. the Mount.

Our Ladye on
now Many were made to the image of
offerings
LYNN REGIS, our Ladye, in her chapel on the Mount of Lynn,
or KING S LYNN. by pilgrims who visited it on their way to Wal-
50
singham.
This chapel is described as a very remarkable

specimen of architecture ; extreme length 7 feet,

1

and width 14. The perfect form of a cross is

it stands within an octagonal

preserved, although
wall ; and another curious feature was that every
one was obliged to make a complete circuit of

the chapel before entering it.

in
Our Ladye s Gild at Lynn was founded
the third year of Edward III., 1329.
Great was the resort of pilgrims to this sanc
tuary,and the profits and offerings at the Chapel
on the Mount are accounted as i6/. los. in the
of St. Mar
compotus of George Elyngham, prior
51
garet, in the first year
of Henry VIII.

46 Ibid.
45
Herbert, v. i. pp. 67, 391. p. 226.
48
Ibid. 35 Henry III.
"

Liberate Roll, 34 Henry III.

v. iv. p. 373-
49 Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Institute,
50
Index. Man. Diocc. Norv. p. 66 ;
and Preface, xx.
01
General History of Norfolk, pp. 429431.
ioo Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

2. Our Ladye on the Bridge.

Some small remains of this chapel converted
into a little dwelling stood, till very lately, on

the eastern side of the bridge. 52

MAYFIELD. In 1471 William de Ponte bequeaths "towards

a new picture of St. Marye of Maghfield xxj., if
the parishioners are willing to repaint the same. 53

MALTON. Not far from Malton was a celebrated sanc

tuary of our Blessed Ladye, called Mount Grace.
It is mentioned in the MS. account of the mar
54
tyrdom of Father John Taylor, S.J., in 1642.

MANCHESTER. The Cathedral.

Hollingworth mentions a large statue of St.

in the chapel called the

"

George by that name,

horse from which was," he says, "lately
in the
saddler shop. The statues of the Virgin Marye,
s

St. Dyonyse, the other patron saints, were upon

the two highest pillars next to the quire ;

unto
them men did bow at their coming into the
55
church."

MARFORD, near In the third of Henry VI., 1424-5, one

ST. ALBAN S. William, a tenant of the abbot s, being at Marford,
and afflicted with blindness, in a spirit of devotion
caused a wooden cross to be erected on the right
hand side of the high road leading to Codicote
over Marford Bridge; and near to it he placed
a statue of our Blessed Ladye in alabaster. 56

MARLBOROUGH. The Constable of Marlborough Castle is

ordered to make Queen ...

chapel in the s

a crucifix there with Marye and John, and Marye

with her child.
57
Writ tested Clarendon, July iQ.

MELFORD. In the inventory of the ornaments belonging

to the Church of the Holy Trinity are enumerated
"

coats belonging to our Ladye."

82 53
General History of Norfolk, p. 431. Test. Vetust. p. 326.
54
MS. Varia S.J. Cart. 29, in Bib. Reg. Bruxell.
55
Journal of British Archazological Association, v. iii.
p. 197.
56
Chron. Man. S. Albani, v. i.
p. 6. Rolls Edit.
87
Liberate Roll, 34 Henry III.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 101

1. A coat for the good days, of cloth of

tissue bordered with white; and for her Son,
another of the same, in like case.
2. A coat of crimson velvet, and another for

her Son, in like case.

3. A
coat of white damask, and another for
her Son, in like case, bordered about with green
velvet. 08
I find this entry in the second of Edward VI.,
r r
"

//. Sold to Mr. Clopton the alt alebast in our

59
ladye s chapell. vis. viuV."

MESSINGHAM PARVA, John 1 Estrange, third son of Henry 1 Estrange,

NORFOLK. of Hunstanton, by his will in 1516 bequeaths his .

body to be buried, if he died within five miles of

Messingham, before our Blessed Ladye, in the
of this
chapel on the south side of the chancel
church. 60

METTINGHAM, A
piece of land called Nolloths
was left to
SUFFOLK. the College of Mettingham, to find a wax light,
for ever to be burnt before the image of our
61
Blessed Ladye in the choir of the chapel.
About the year 1414, an image of our Blessed
Ladye was sculptured, for which the wood appears
to have been provided by Sir William Argentein ;
and Thomas Barsham, of Yarmouth, who is also
called Thomas de Jernemuta, received in several

payments, making and painting two images,

for

with tabernacles, and a tabula for the high altar,

62
not less than 37 /. 4s. 8^.

MlDDLEBOROUGH. In 1453, Thomas Lynehouse of Leventhorpe,

in Cleveland, leaves a support for the light of our
in the parish church of St. Hilda of
Ladye
63
Middleburg.

MlLDENHALL. i. The image of our Ladye was by the high

altar. In 1477, Thomas Chylderston bequeathed

Notes and Queries 3 Series, v. iii. p. 179.

88

89 v. ii. p. 8l.
Proceedings of Suffolk Archccological Institute,
61
60
General History of Norfolk, p. 472. Suckling, v. i. p. 177.
6S v. vi. p. 67.
Proceedings of Royal Archaological Institute,
C3
Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 171.
IO2 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

to the image of the most glorious Virgin Marye

by the said altar, vis. vii*/. 64
2. The chapel of our Ladye over the porch.

In 1519, Thomas Marchanter of Mildenhall

bequeathed the reparacon of the chapell of
"to

owre Ladye ovyr the porch, xx*/. and in 1527, ;"

Alice Bateman left xuV. for the same object. 65

MISSINDEN, In the King s expenditure, July 27, third

BUCKS. Henry the Eighth: "To Mast. Egerton for offering
6Q
at our Ladye at Myssenden Abbey, 6s. Sd."

MOLESCROFT. will dated February 25, 1498, Agnes Hil-

By
yard leaves to the image of our Blessed Ladye at

Mollescroft, $s. A,d. in gold to hang round her

neck. 67

MOLSA. Agnes, wife of William Bird of Beverley, by

will dated the feast of St. Lambert, 1398, leaves
half a piece velorum de sipirs to the image of the
Blessed Virgin Marye over the door of the chapel
in the woods of Molsa. 68

MOULTONS MICHAEL, Here h { f Qur Blessed Lad

or Gx. MOULTON. .
, . . , .. , .
ro
Wlth an altar imaS e and
NORFOLK. >
"gnt-

MOUNT BADON. Guppenberg mentions in the Atlas Marianus

a miraculous image of our Blessed Ladye under
the title of Imago B. V. M. miraculosa Regia de
Monte Badonico} It was, however, the image

of our Blessed Ladye which King Arthur had

painted on his shield, and carried at the battle of
Mount Badon ;
and which Guppenberg describes
in another place as our Ladye de Clypeo. I have
71
already referred to it.
The account of the battle is thus given by
Matthew of Westminster :

"

The Saxons Colgrin, Bardulf, and Cheldric,

repented of having made a truce with King Arthur,
and assailed Mount Badon. The King ordered
64 5
Proceedings of Suffolk Archaeological Institute, vol. i. p. 271. Ibid.
65
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 1452.
67
Test. Ebor. vol. iv. p. 133.
08 6D
Test. Ebor. vol. i.
p. 240. General History of Norfolk, 106.
71
70 No. cccclxxxxix. p. 591. Vide p. 86.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 103

his troops toarms ; he himself put on his coat of

mail,and donned his dragon-crested helmet. He
slung on his shoulder his shield named Pridwen,
in which the image of the Holy Mother of God

painted thereon perpetually recalled her to his

thoughts. He girded on his brave falchion Cali-
burn, and seized his lance called Iron with his

right hand. Drawing up his forces, he boldly

attacked the Pagans. They fought bravely, but
when much of the day had been spent in fighting,
at last King Arthur, drawing Caliburn, and in

voking the name

of the Blessed Virgin Marye,
dashed into the serried ranks of the foe; whomso
ever he struck needed no second cut. He did not
cease until eight hundred and forty of the enemy
had fallen beneath his sharp-edged blade Colgrin !

and Bardulf perished, with many thousands of

their followers; Cheldric saved himself by flight." 72
This victory the pious King attributed to the
intercession of our Blessed Ladye.

MUSWELL. On the hill which separates Hornsey from

Finchley Common, and not far from the Alex
andra Park stood the celebrated shrine of our
Ladye of Muswell to which there was a continual
resort of pilgrims. It was attached to the Priory of
the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem

at Clerkenwell, by Richard de Beauvais, Bishop of

London in 1112.
In his Speculum Britannia, Norden says :

There formerly stood at Muswell Hill, called

"

Pinsenall, a chappell, sometime bearing the name

of our Ladie of Muswell, where now Alderman
Row hath erecteda proper house; the place
taketh the name of the hall (Mousewell Hill) for
there is on the hill a spring of faire water which
is now within the compass of the house. There
was for some time an image of the Ladye of
Muswell, whereunto was a continued resort in the
way of pilgrimage, growing as is (though as I take
it) fabulously reported, in regard of a great cure
which was performed by this water upon a King
of Scots, who, being strangely diseased, was by
72
Flores. Hist, per M. Westm. collect!. Francofurti 1601, pp. 96, 97. Roger of
Wendover gives the name of Arthur s lance as Ron, vol. i. pp. 64, 65. Ed. Coxe.
Loud. 1841.
IO4 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

some divine intelligence advised to take the water

of a well in England, called Muswell, which, after
long scrupulation and inquisition, this well was
found, and performed the cure ; absolutely to
deny the cure, I dare not, for that the High God
hath given virtue unto waters to heale infirmities,
as may appear by the cure of Naaman, the leper,
in Jordan, and by
by washing himself seven times
the Poole Bethseda which healed the rest that
stopped there, after it was moved by the Angell."
73

MUTFORD, SUFFOLK. Here the church had a gild and a light of

our Ladye.
In 1401, Dame de Mutford, widow of Sir
Edward de Hengrave, gave by her will vi s. viii d.
to the light of our Ladye in Mutford church. 74

NEWARK. John Burton, S.T.P., Vicar of Newark, says

in his will, dated 2Qth September, 1475 :

I desire that certain collars, pairs of beads,

"

rings, gems, crucifixes, and other jewels which

appear in a list in the keeping of the churchwardens,
remain for ever for the adorning of the image of
the Blessed Virgin Marye and her Son, in the
chapel beyond the south doors of the aforesaid
church, in the honour of God, the Blessed Virgin
Marye, and all the Saints. 75

NEWBURGH MONAS- Every day there was given and distributed to

TERY, YORKSHIRE, the poor an alms called Ladymete, and a measure
of beer. 76

NEWENHAM, CAM- Although have found no mention of any

I

BRIDGESHIRE. shrine of our Ladye, or of lights and

Blessed
offerings at this place, still Newenham must not be
omitted from this series, because here it was
that the Scapular was instituted.
In 1249, Michael Malherbe gave the Car
melites a habitation at Newenham, just outside
Cambridge, where they remained forty-two years.
In 1291 they removed into the parish of St. John-
Miln-Street, where they received great benefac-

73 74
Vol. i.
p. 653. Suckling, v. i.
p. 276.
75 7G
Test. Ebor. vol. iii.
p. 218. Valor Ecchsiasticus, t. v. p. 93.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 105

tionsfrom King Edward I., Sir Guy de Mortimer,

77
and Thomas de Hertford.
Born in 1165, St. Simon Stock was admitted
into the Carmelite Order in 1212; and in 1245
was named General by the Chapter held at

Aylesford.
The celebrated vision occurred on the morning
of the 1 6th 1251, before the break of day,
July,
and Chapel at Newenham.
in the Carmelite
The principal authority is Father Peter Swa-
and the com
nyngton, a Carmelite, confessor,

panion, and secretary of St. Simon. He wrote

the relation of the vision as dictated to him by
the Saint, and on the day of its occurrence.
These are his words :

"The Blessed Simon, broken down by a

and by
lengthy old age and rigorous penance,
the troubles of his brethren in his heart,
bearing
was watching in prayer through the
diligently
night, even until
morning. And whilst thus
he
hisreceived a consolation
making prayer,
from heaven, which he thus narrated to us in
community :

Most dear Brothers, Blessed be God, Who

"

does not abandon those who hope in Him, nor

despise their prayers Blessed, the most Holy!

Mother of Christ Jesus our Lord, who, mindful

of the days of old, and of the tribulations which
have found many of you exceedingly (not con
sidering that all who desire to lead a devout life

in Jesus Christ persecutions), sends you

suffer

a message which you will receive in the joy of

the Holy Ghost :
may He direct me that I may
make it known to you in the manner in which
it behoves me to speak.
was pouring out my soul in the sight
"Whilst I

of the Lord, dust and ashes as I am, and praying

with confidence to our Ladye the Blessed
full

Virgin Marye, that, since she wished us to be

called her brothers, she would show herself a
Mother to us, by delivering us from the danger
of temptations and recommending us by some
SIGN of favour to those who were persecuting
us, saying to her with sighs
77 MOM. Angl. vi. p. 1570-
io6 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Flos Carmeli,
Vitis florigera,

Splendor coeli,
Virgo puerpera
Singularis.
Mater mitis,
Sed viri nescia,

Carmelitis
Da privilegia.
Stella maris.

She appeared to me attended by a great

"

retinue,and holding in her hands the habit of

the Order habitum ordinis said :

"

Hoc erit tibi Carmelitis privi-

et cunctis

legium. In hoc moriens ceternum non patietur

incendium?
"

Swanyngton continues :

He sent this same message

"

to the brethren
who were in other places very sorrowful, as a
letterof consolation, which I, undeserving as I
am, wrote at the dictation of the man of God,
so that they might return thanks altogether by

prayer and perseverence. At Cambridge, on the

morrow of the Separation of the Apostles (16
7S
1 25
July), i."

Simon Stock died in 1265, at the age of

St.

a hundred years, in the house of his Order at

Bordeaux. His death-song was the Angelic
Salutation. When the controversies about the
Carmelite Order were started in the seventeenth
century, an autograph copy of Father Swanyng-
ton s letter was found in the archives of the
convent at Bordeaux. 79

NORTHAMPTON. Our Ladye of Grace.

In the accounts of Elizabeth of York.
March 24, 1502.
Offering to our Ladye of Grace at North
80
ampton, ij
s. vi^/.

August 5, 1502.
Item. Delivered to M. Xpofre Plommer, for

73
Vinea Carmeli, n. 75 r >
PP- 39 ^ Se1- Speculum Carmelitanuni, t. ii.
p. 429,
n. 1515 Menologium Carmelitanuni, p. 292.
:
Bononire, 1628.
70
Benedict XIV. De Festis, 1. ii. c. vi. 8. De Festo B.M. de Monte Carmelo.
80
P. 3.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 107

thoffering of the Quene at hir being sikke at Wood

81
stock to oure Lady at Northampton ij s. vi</.

In the King s book of payments, 3 Henry VIII.

August 3-9, 1509.
Offerings at the Rood of the Wall in North

ampton.
At our Ladye of Grace there. Sum not given. 82

NORTON, SUFFOLK. Frequent bequests of sheep, wheat, barley,

malt, &c., were made here at the altar of our
83
Blessed Ladye, for the support of her light.

NORWICH. I. The Cathedral.

In 1244, Bishop Walter de Suffield founded
1.

the chapel of the Blessed Virgin at the east end

of the Cathedral, before the high altar of which
he was buried. It is now demolished. 84 By his
will,amongst other bequests, he left to the light
of our Ladye on the altar in her chapel by him
founded, the tithes in his demesne lands in Thorn-
ham for ever, and twenty marks to purchase more
annual rents for its support. Also, to Walter de Cal-
thorpe his nephew, sundry articles, for which he
required him, as long as he lived, to feed yearly
one hundred poor on the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin, and to give a poor person a
dinner every day in the year. To his faithful and
beloved William de Whitewell he bequeathed the
image of our Blessed Ladye given him by Master
85
Roger de Reveningham.
2. Our Ladye of Pity.
The chapel of our Ladye of Pity was in the
ante-choir ; her image was under the rood loft. 86
In 1423, John Crispyng, Esquire, was buried
here ;
and amongst other legacies he gave 40 s. to
87
find a light burning before our Ladye of Pity.

3. There was also another image described as

the great image of the Blessed Virgin; in 1401
there was a charge of ij s. vi d. for painting on the
8S
wall before it.

82
P. 37. Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. v. ii. pt. ii.
p. 1452.
83 v. ii.
Proceedings of Suffolk Archaeological Institute, p. 290.
84 85
Blomefield, vol. ii.
p. 345. Ibid. p. 347.
86 87
hid. Mond. Diac. Norv. p. 66. Blomefield, vol. ii. p. 509.
88
Norwich vol. of the Royal Archaeological Institute, p. 208.
io8 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

II.St. Andrew s.

1.Our Ladye of Grace.

The chapel of our Ladye of Grace was under
the steeple; was her image, with a light
in it

always burning before it, on her altar, and a gild

89
to her honour was held here.
Numerous bequests were made to this sanc
tuary.
In 1504, Agnes Est leaves to our Ladye in the
steeple a pair of beads of silver. In 1505,
Edmund Wright bequeathed ZQS. to the church
lights to be images in the chapel of
set before the
Our Ladye of Grace. In 1508, Robert Gardiner,
alderman, desires to be buried in our Ladye s
chapel in the steeple, and gave 6 for a pair of

gilt chalices ; he also willed

a well-disposed priest
to go to Rome, to sing there thirteen weeks, for
himself and his wives ;
and the rest of the year
90
in St. Andrew s, and he to have twenty marks.
In 1510, John Chirche left a legacy to gild the
91
image of Our Ladye of Grace in her chapel.
2. Our Ladye in the Churchyard.

In 1476, Thomas Cambridge, mercer, desired

to be buried in the churchyard before the image
of our Ladye. He left several legacies of vest

ments, and gave a donation towards the main

tenance of the daily Mass of Jesus and the Marye
Mass. 92
3. There was also a tabernacle with the image
of the Visitation of our Blessed Ladye. 93

III. St. Augustine s.

In 1418, Sir John Corpusty, rector of this

church, on the presentation of the Prior of Nor

wich, founded a light before the image of the
Blessed Virgin in her chapel here. 94

IV. Church of the Austin Friars.

1. Our Ladye of Pity.
2. Inchurch was the celebrated chapel of
this

our Lady called the Scala Ccelt, to which there

was a continual resort of pilgrims, who made their

offerings at the altar. It was richly endowed

89 90 91
Blomefield, vol. ii.
p. 703. Ibid. p. 702. Ibid. p. 703.
93 93 94
Ibid. p. 702. Ibid. p. 703. Ibid. p. 832.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 109

with indulgences by various Popes; most folks

desired to have Masses sung for them here, or to
be buried in the cloister of the Scala Cali, that
they might be made partakers
of the many
and granted by the Popes to
pardons indulgences
this place ; this being the only chapel in England,

except that of the same

name at Westminster,
and that of Our Ladye in St Botulph s, at Boston,
which had the same privileges as the chapel of
the Scala Cceli at Rome. 95

V. The Charnel House, now the Free School.

of the
Ralph Pulvertoft, principal or custos
Charnel House, by his will dated March 27,

1525, desired to be
buried in our Ladye s chapel
a taper of
at the end of the presbytery, and left
five pounds of wax to be set before the image
of

our Ladye in the chapel in which he was buried,

and a candle of half a pound of wax to be kept
fora year burning on his grave daily, whilst the
96
Ladye Mass was being sung there.

VI. The Carmelites, or White Friars.

The Carmelites were established in Norwich
about the year 1256. Their founder was Philip,
the son of Warine, the son of Adam Arnold, or
Ernold, of Cowgate, in Norwich, a merchant who
assumed the name of Cowgate he bestowed his ;

messuage, and the buildings

and yards belonging
to it, on the order the friars, by the gift
of their
;

and other erected a noble

founder good people,
and dedicated it to the Holy Virgin;
church,
which being finished, Philip entered the order and
died in the house of his own foundation
on the

23rd April, 1283.

He appointed no patron, and
they continued without one until
consequently
1485, when the prior,
Thomas Waterpitte, S.T.B.,
and his convent, supplicated the mayor, aldermen,
sheriffs, and citizens
of Norwich, that, as their
founder was a merchant and a fellow-citizen, and
had assigned to them no patron, they would
henceforward be patrons, which they accepted;
of
and it was confirmed in the General Chapter
5 and Index. Mon. Di&-t. Now. pp. 43. 66.
Blomefield, vol. ii.
p. 552 ;

U6
ftid. p. 529.
no Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

their order held at Burnham, on the Feast of the

Assumption, 1486, and Brother John, Prior Pro

vincial of the said order, decreed in open chapter,
that the Corporation should be prayed for in all
divine services in the monastery as their patrons,
and should be partakers of all the benefit of the

prayers of all the brethren of the order throughout

England ;
and in token hereof, the convent con
firmed it under the common seal to the mayor,
and the mayor, under the city seal, to the order. 97
In 1498, the mayor and sheriffs granted to the
prior and brethren, under their common seal, that
they should be for ever free from all toll and
custom of the city, and all fees due to the city
98
officers.

The image of our Blessed Ladye stood in the

north side of the church, and several persons
were buried before it."

The Norwich bore a

seal of the Carmelites at

castle, showing the city to under be their patrons,

it our Blessed Lady holding her Divine Son in

her arms, on each side two friars in their proper

habits, two of whom have labels issuing from their
mouths bearing these words :

1. 2bc JFtli Pater.

2. (Htrgo Dttnns,

VII. St. Edmund, K.M.

The image of our Blessed Ladye, with its

stood in the south chapel.

light, In 1467, John
Moor was buried in that chapel, and before the
101
image of our Ladye.

VIII. St George of Colegate.

In this church there was a light before the
102
image of our Blessed Ladye.

IX. St. George at Tombland.

In 1491, Agnes Petyte, widow, was buried in

this church; she gave wax lights to burn before
Our Ladye of Pity. 103

97 l8 9 1CO
Blomeficld, p. 789. Ibid. p. 790. Ibid. p. 791. Ibid. p. 895.
101 102 103 Ibid.
Ibid, p. 783. Ibid. p. 829. p. 744.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 1 1 1

X. St. Giles.

Here was an altar of Our Ladye of Pity, and

its a light was also kept burning before the
gild j

image of our Blessed Ladye. Several persons were

104
buried before Our Ladye of Pity.

XI. Gregory. St.

On north side was the chapel of our

the

Ladye, which was dedicated to her Assumption.

Here was our Ladye s altar and her image, with a
light always burning before
it. At this altar the
105
Jesus Mass was celebrated.
There were five bells here ;
the third bore the

inscription
106
almel abe, fjac in condaie nutu gauge guafce.

XII. St. James.

There is in this church, at the upper end of
the aisle, a chapel dedicated to our Ladye, whose
image stood by the altar, with a light burning
107
before it.

XIII. St. John the Baptist, or the Friars

Preachers.
An image of our Ladye stood in the choir of
this church. 108

1452, Edmund
In Segeford, mercer, was
buried in the upper end of the north aisle, in the

chapel by the window glazed with the history of

the Magnificat.

XIV. St. Julian.

1421, Robert Steynton of Wilton was

In
buried in the chancel before the image of our
Blessed Ladye at the south-east corner of the high
110
altar.

XV. St. Lawrence.

i. Our Blessed Ladye.

In 1508, John King by his will leaves two

dozen wax candles to burn before this image, in
her chapel. 111

105 306 107 Ibid.

104
Blomefield, p. 657. Ibid. p. 680. Ibid. p. 681. p. 795-
108 loy no Ibid. p. 545.
:u Ibid. p. 678.
Ibid. p. 730. Ibid. p. 727.
1 12 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye.

2. Our Ladye of Pity and, ;

3. Our Ladye of the Assumption. Lights

were kept constantly burning before them. 112

XVI. St. Leonard s Priory.

Here there was
a celebrated image of our
Blessed Ladye in the Priory of St. Leonard s on
Household, called St. Leonard s Without, to
which great offerings were made, and many pil
113
grimages.
Mrs. Paston, after hearing of her husband s
illness, wrote to him on the 2 8th September,

1443:
have behested to go on pilgrimage to
"

I
114
Walsingham, and to St. Leonard s for you."

XVII. The Leper-house in the parish of

St. Clement s.
Here was an image of our Ladye with a light
115
before it.

XVIII. St. Martin in Coslany.

1. An
image of Our Ladye of Pity, with a
light, either a lamp or a wax taper, constantly

burning before it.

2. The chapel of our Ladye, with her altar,
was at the east end of the south aisle, together
with an image of the Blessed Virgin and a
116
light.

Our Ladye of the Oak.

3.
This church was commonly called St Martin s
at the Oak, from a large oak which stood in the

churchyard, and which contained the celebrated

image of our Ladye of the Oak.
Blomefield says :

seems that this oak and statue began to

"It

be of remark about the time of Edward II., for

then I find it first called atte the oke. What
particular virtue this good Ladye had, I don t

know, but certain it was she was very much visited

by the populace, who left many gifts in their wills

to dress, paint, and repair her. This was a
113 1]3
Blomefield, p. 673. Ibid. p. 797 j and Ind. Man. Diac. Norv; p. 66.
114
Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. 21. Edit. Fenn. Lond. 1787.
115
Blomefield, p. 822. Ibid. p. 837.
Old English Devotion to oar Blessed Ladye. 1 1
3

famous image of the Blessed Virgin Marye placed

in the oak which grew in the churchyard, so that
it was seen by all that passed in the street, from

whence the church took the name of St. Martin

at the Oak, it being always before called St. Martin
in Coste Lane (near the side of the river) or
Coselany, the whole part of the city from Black-
friars Bridge, or New Bridge to St. Martin at
the oak gates being called so because it lies on
the coste of the river.
"At the
coming of Edward VI. to the Crown,
our Ladye was dismounted, and I am apt to
believe the poor oak cut down also, least that
should be visited for our Ladyship s sake ; for the

present oak which now grows in the place hath

not been planted a hundred years, as appears by
the Parish Register in these words I, John :

Tabor, constable and overseer, did bring the oak

from Ranner Hall near Horningferry, before me
on my horse, and set it in the churchyard of
St. Martin of Coselany. March 9, 1656. I set it

"Then also the rich vestments and plate were

sold, and the money employed to mend and fye

the river."
n "

In 1513, John Buxton, worsted-weaver, was

buried in the churchyard before the image of
our Ladye in the Oke, and gave to our Ladye in
the Oke, 6d. 118

XIX. St. Martin formerly called at the Palace

Gate.
In this church there was an image of our
119
Ladye with a light.

XX. St. Marye in Coslany.

In this church the principal image of our
1.

Blessed Ladye stood in its usual place on the

north side of the high altar.
2. In our
Ladye s chapel on the south side
was her altar and image.
3. In this chapel there was also an image of
our Ladye of Pity.
All the images had lights before them.
117
Blomefield, p. 836, Ibid. Ibid. p. 748.

I
1 14 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

In 1464, Robert Wood was buried before our

Ladye of Pity.
In 1465, Henry Toke founded a candle before
our Ladye of Pity, and another one before the
120
principal image of our Ladye.
The Marye bell was inscribed :

Cltrgutte egregte foocor campana

XXI. College of St. Marye in the Fields.

1. Our Ladye of Pity.
Her image stood in the south side.
2. Our
Ladye at St. James s altar.
The Marye-Mass was daily celebrated before
her image at this altar by the first prebend, who
was commonly called the Prebend of the Morning
Mass of the Blessed Virgin Marye. 122
In 1475, J nn Spendlove, a chaplain, was
buried before St. James s altar, where the Morning
Mass is said before the image of our Blessed
Ladye there painted. 123

XXII. St. Marye the Less.

In 1464, Mabel, wife of Richard Apulton, was
buried in the chancel before the principal image
of our Blessed Ladye there. 124

XXIII. St. Michael in Coslany.

The chapel of our Blessed Ladye, commonly

called Thorpe s Chantry, was founded and
endowed by Robert Thorpe in the reign of
Henry VII., and there was a constant light before
her image. 125

XXIV. St. Michael at Pleas.

The chapel in the south transept was dedi
cated to our Blessed Ladye, and a
light kept
burning before her image.
In 1405, Thomas Porter, after the death of
his wife and his niece, leaves his messuage in this
wax candle burning on the Rood-
parish to find a
loft before our Ladye there, daily, at Matins,
Mass, and Vespers, and to find a weekly Mass on
126
Mondays.
180 l 122
Blomefield, p. 840. Ibid. p. 842. Ibid. p. 608.
128 "* 125
Ibid. p. 614. Ibid. p. 572. Ibid. pp. 843-846. Ibid. p. 718.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 1 1
5

XXV. St. Michael at Thorn.

Here was an image of our Lady on the north
side of the church. 127

XXVI. St. Peter, Maneroft.

1. On
the south side of the south aisle opposite
to the chapel of St. Nicholas is the
chapel of our
Blessed Ladye, which in former days was a place
of great repute. 128
In 1320, Cecily, wife of John de Wroxham,
was buried by him in the chapel of our Ladye,
and gave a legacy to St. Mary s Mass and in ;

1458, Marion Mason, widow, gave a white silk

vestment to serve on holidays of our Ladye. 129
In 1497, ten marks were given to paint our
Lady s image and tabernacle in this chapel, and
130
to keep a continual light before it.
In 1500, Florence Johnson gave seven wax
candles to burn before the image of our Ladye
in her chapel for four years, viz., the middle
candle to burn at all times of divine service, and
the other six only while the Salve is sung. 131
This image of the Blessed Virgin was called
our Ladye of Millain, and it stood in a tabernacle.
This may have been a copy of some celebrated
image of our Ladye in Milan. In the church
of Notre Dame de la Chapelle at Brussels, there
existed a confraternity of our Ladye of Milan,
which was suppressed with the approval of the
132
bishop in I483.
2. Our Ladye of Pity.
3. Our Ladye in the nave of the church on
the perke, or bracket, to which in 1493, Thomas
London, mercer, who was buried before it, gave
133
4oj. for the gilding.

XXVII. St. Peter, Mountergate.

At the end of the chancel is a chapel of
east
our Ladye, and on the outside of the wall exactly
187
Gen. Hist, of Norfolk, p. 1077.
128
Blomefield, v. xi. p. 632.
129 Ibid.
p. 638.
130
Ibid. p. 633.
131
Ibid. p. 639.
135
Hist, de la ville de Bruxelles. Par A. Henne, et A. Wauters archiviste de la
ville. Brux. 1845, v. iii.
p. 456.
118
Ibid, v. ii. p, 639.
n6 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

opposite to the altar within was an image of the

Blessed Virgin, and under it, two statues of the
founders, and a brass plate with an inscription
101
which is lost.

XXVIII. St. Paul.

At the end of the aisle is a chapel now
east
used as a vestry, which was dedicated to our
Ladye, before whose image at her altar there hung
a lamp which was always kept burning in service -
time. 135

XXIX. St. Simon and St. Jude.

An image of our Ladye stood in the alley in

the churchyard. 130 One of the bells bore the
inscription :

dttrguujf cpeo;ie tiocor campana

XXX. St. Stephen.

In the Edward II., 1314-1315,
Eighth of
Richard Priour settled 4*. a year out of John
Sparwe s tenement in this parish to keep a wax
candle lighted before the image of our Blessed
Ladye. In 1509, Beatrix Krikemer was buried
in this church. she says In her
Item. I
will :
"

bequeath to our Ladye in the same church my

best beads to hang about her neck on good days."
In 1523, Alice Carre gave her coral beads to the
beautifying the image of our Ladye on the festefull
days in this church.
The east window in the Ladye chapel was

very fine. It contained the whole history of our

Ladye s life, with the inscription,
^>alte
&egina Crater mijsericortifae;
and
137
3be ISegina coelorum, ate Comma, &c.

2. Our Ladye of Pity.

There was a light kept burning before this

138
image.

XXXI.Carrow, outside the city.

The
Saddlers and Spurriers Gild of Norwich,
established in 1385, was held here.

13i
Blomefield, p. 553.
w Ibid.
Ibid. p. 739.
m Ibid. p. 596. "8
Ibid, p. 602.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 1 1
7

"To
ye honor of oure lady seynt Marie, and
of alle hahven, yese ordenaunce of fraternyte of
Sadeleres and Sporyeres, in ye cite of Nonvyche
wern be-gunnen in ye yer of oure lordis birthe
ihesu crist, a thowsande three hundred four skore
and ffiue, and perpetuelli schal ben holden a-forn
ye ymage of our lady at ye heye auter in ye
chirche of nunnes in ye nunrye of Carrowe be-
139
syden Nonvyche."

ORMESBY, Sir John Conyers of Ormesby, by his will

IN CLEVELAND. dated July 2, 1438, desires that his executors shall
cause the altar and windows in our Ladye s
chapel to be repaired, and that the image of the
Blessed Virgin which stands over the high altar
shall be placed over the altar aforesaid. 140

OTTERY ST. MARY. From Domesday Book it is clear that the Chap
ter of St. Marye Normandy, held the
at Rouen, in
manor of Otrei of William the Norman. It was
the gift of St. Eadward the Confessor to them in
1 06 1. His grant of the vil or manor of Otregia
to the church of St. Marye of Rouen is recited in
a Patent of the fourth year of Richard the
Second. 141
The College of St. Marye was founded by
Bishop Grandison. He also built the Ladye

Chapel and by his will, dated September 8,

;

1368, amongst other legacies, he bequeathed to

the college an image of silver, gilt, of our Blessed
Ladye.
In the constitutions he made several dispo
sitions about the Marye Mass and Office of the
Blessed Virgin and by statute No. 1 7 he ordained
;

that the bell which was rung for the Marye Mass
142
shall also peal for the ignifeginm, or evening Ave.
Statute 19 is to this effect :

ordain that every day, at least one canon

"We

who desires to have the blessing of Blessed Virgin

Marye shall assist at her Mass, that he may
always see if it be celebrated with decorum and
devotion. Equally let the other canons and vicars

139
English Gilds, &c. Early English Text Soc. 1870, vol. xl. p. 42.
140
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 64.
141 14J
P. I, m. 3 ; Oliver, Man, Dicec. Exon. p. 259. Ibid. p. 268.
n8 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

who are not engaged, for some good reason, at

the time, unless they are saying their own Masses,
go to the Mass of the Blessed Virgin, if they love
her more than their own vain pleasures, so that

they may more copiously in their necessi

obtain
ties the blessings of the Mother of Christ, and
the grace of her Son. To those who shall thus
be present we grant a daily pardon of twenty
days."

Statute 20.
"

We also command the cantor,

equally as the sacristan, and the chaplain of the

Blessed Virgin, to see who come late to the
Marye Mass, or behave themselves ill during it,
and cause them to be punished as bad and un
grateful servants of the Blessed Virgin by the
custos and seneschals, if they desire to obtain the
assistance of the same Blessed Virgin at the hour
of their death."

Statute 53. "We also ordain that each year,

on the festival of the Assumption of the Glorious

Virgin, . . . the whole college shall eat together,
and in token of the spotless virginity of the
Dear Dove of Paradise, they shall all wear
surplices during dinner, without which absolutely
no one, unless he be a religious man, shall be
143
permitted to eat."

Then follow long regulations in regard of the

candles and lights of our Blessed Ladye.
"... Therefore, let not the lights which we

have ordained in honour of God and the Mother

of Eternal Light, at any time, quod absit, be with
drawn by the negligence, or malice, or for the
convenience of those who, as sons of darkness,
seek more after their own affairs than those of
God. But if some, inspired by God, and pre
vented by His grace, may augment the lights, may
God grant them light here and for eternity, and
may perpetual light shine upon them. But may
those who shall withdraw them incur exterior
darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of
teeth, unless they speedily repent."

These constitutions are dated Exeter, 3 kal.

Octob. (29 September) 1339. u4
T 4
"

Oliver, Mon, Dicec. Exon. p. 261.

"
Ibid. p. 273.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye, 119

The seal represents the coronation of our

Blessed Ladye, with the inscription :

+ . <oHe<r,tt IBeate $9am Be flDtert.

OXENEY. In the year 1192, the Abbot Akarius erected a

tabula, or reredos, with an image of the Blessed
Virgin Marye above the altar at Oxeney, near
Dover. 145

OXFORD. I. All Saints.

Our Ladye s chapel, on the south side of the
nave, was erected by the gild of the cordwainers
in Oxford. There were many benefactors to this
gild amongst others may be named I. Peggy, a
;

burgess and cordwainer, who describes himself as

a brother of the gild, and makes a bequest to this
14C
chapel in i349.

II. Priory of St. Frideswithe.

The Barbersof Oxford, at their first incorpo
ration, on the order of Dr. Northwade, then Vice
Chancellor of the University, agreed that they
would yearly keep and maintain a light before our
Ladye, in our Ladye s chapel in this church for ;

the sure continuance of which every man or

woman of the same profession, that kept a shop,
should pay twopence every quarter, two journey
men one penny, and to keep it always burning
under the pain of 6s. 8rf. This continued till the
"

Reformation. 147
Close by the grange of St. Frideswithe s Priory
was a cell or hermitage called that of our Ladye,
from her image affixed in the wall, and a little
148
oratory adjoining.

III.The Grey Friars.

Our Ladye of Pyle.
Probably this is a misprint for Our Ladye of
Pyte. The only notice I have is, that Agnes, the
wife of Michael Norton, was buried in the Grey
149
Friars, before the image of Our Ladye of Pyle.
145
Glos. of Architecture. Oxford, 1850, p. 456.
146
City of Oxford. By Anthony a Wood. With additions by the Rev. Sir J.

Peshall, Bart. London, 1773, p. 39.

147
Ibid. p. 123.
148
Ibid. p. 294.
149
Ibid. p. 162.
I2O Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

IV. St. Marye s.

In the latter part of the reign of Henry the

Third, Dyonisius, son of Simon
Geldynsmith,
.
gave a tenement in School Street towards the
150
light of the church of the Blessed Virgin Marye.
And in 1270, Reginald de la Legh, a beadle of
the University, gave his house in Gropeland, and
its annual rent of half a mark, towards the main

tenance of the chapel, and the celebration of the

Mass of our Ladye for his soul, and those of his
151
parents.
The porch immediately facing Oriel Street was
erected, in 1637, by Dr. Morgan Owen, chaplain
to Archbishop Laud. Over it is a statue of the
Blessed Virgin, with her Divine Son in her arms,
holding a small crucifix, which, at the time of its
erection, gave such offence to the Puritans, that it
was included in the articles of impeachment
against the archbishop.
152
A. a Wood describes it
as a capital statue of the Blessed Virgin, with her
infant Christ in her arms, which much attracts the
observation of the curious and foreigners. 153
Not far from the Church was St. Marye s

Entry, which belonged to Marye s. It was

St.

sometimes called St. Marye s House, and paid to

the church for the use of our Ladye s image, altar,

lights, &c., 8s. a year. 154

St. Michael s.
V.
In the reign of Henry the Third, a yearly rent
of two shillings was given by one of the old
halls, called, in those days, Stapled, or Stapel-
Ledyne-Hall, to the maintenance of the lights in
St.Marye s chapel in this church. 155 Several lands
and tenements were allotted for the maintenance
of ornaments, lights, and other trinkets, that did
always attend the images of the Blessed Virgin
Marye, St. Catherine, St. George, and others, as
156
they formerly stood on pedestals in this church.

VI. St. Nicholas. The Black Friars.

At the end of the reign, of Henry the Third,
R. Mulner gave them lands in the parish of

180 I51 152

City of Oxford, p. 60. Ibid. p. 61. Parker, Guide to Oxford. Ed. 1873, p. 27.
1W Ibid. p. 73. " 5
Ibid. p. 31. J56
Ibid. p. 22.
City of Oxford, p. 54.
 our Blessed Ladye. 121
Old English Devotion to

St. Aldgate ;
and when he gave his nephew, H.
Wycombe, a part of the neighbouring messuage,
he did so on the condition that he and his
successors should pay yearly four shillings to
maintain a light at the altar of the Blessed Virgin
where the
Marye in the church of St. Nicholas,
157
Friars Preachers live.
St. Edmund was one of the very few great
saints whom the Anglo-Norman Church has pro
and he died in exile at Portigny, in
duced;
France.
In his early youth his pious mother Mabel
sent him to Paris to pursue his studies ; and the
outfit which she gave him consisted
of a copy of

the Sacred and a hair-shirt. She her

Scriptures
self constantly were herde heyre for cure Ladie s
loue." Her death recalled him from France, and
he then went to continue his studies at Oxford.
the
Here, whilst he was studying grammar, by
advice of a priest he made a vow of perpetual
and he espoused himself to our Blessed
virginity ;
Ladye in the following manner. He had two
on which was engraved the
gold rings made,
Angelical Salutation.
158
One of them he put on
the finger of an image of the Blessed Virgin, and
the other on his own. The chronicler of Laner-
crost says that "when he was a boy at Oxford,
studying grammar,
he secretly espoused an image
of the glorious Virgin,
which we, as well as the
whole University, have often seen, by placing on
the of the Blessed Virgin a ring of gold,
finger
which many have since beheld with their own
159
eyes."

Peter de Natalibus gives a different version.

He mentions one ring, that one which
only
St. Edmund placed on the finger of
our Ladye s

image, and says that it was miraculously found on

his finger at his death. 100 But from a letter which
I have had the honour of receiving from
Pere
of the of Pontigny, I regret to
Boyer, Abbey

157
City of Oxford, p. 263.
158 Wynkyn de \Vorde, 1516, f. cv.
Capgrave, Legenda Anglic.
Edited by J. Stephenson, Esq.
Edin
".
Ad ami. 1227. Bannatyne Club.
burgh, 1839.
160 cclxxxi.
Catalogs Sanctorum,
f.
Lugduni, 1508,
122 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

learn that nothing is known there of St. Edmund s

ring, except what history has recorded of it.
None of the chroniclers or biographers of
St. Edmund make any mention, so far as I have
been able to ascertain, of the locality where this
venerated image of our Ladye stood. My esteemed
friend, Mr. Charles Aloysius Buckler, who is well
acquainted with every stone and corner of Oxford,
informs me that it was probably in the church of
the Blackfriars.In this there is no anachronism,
because the church of St. Nicholas had already
existed for some time previously to the arrival
of the Dominicans in Oxford. And it is worthy
of notice, that the seal of the Black Friars of
Oxford represents our Blessed Ladye with her
Divine Son in her arms, and at her feet a little

personage on his knees, whom Mr. Buckler who

saw an impression of this seal attached to a
document now at Pontigny presumes to be
intended for the young St. Edmund. Under the
lower arcade of the seal is a supplicant religious.
The legend is J- SIGILL : CAPITVLI : FRAT :

PREDICATORV : OXON.
The statue of our Ladye which bore the
ring
of St. Edmund was anobject of especial venera
tion for the whole of the University. St. Edmund

died on the i6th of November, 1242, and was

canonized by Pope Innocent the Fourth in 1247.
Hence it is by no means improbable that the

Dominicans of Oxford should have perpetuated,

in their common seal, this celebrated act of St.

Edmund.
VII. Osney Abbey.
An image of our Ladye stood over the great
north gate, with the shield of St. George on one
side, and the arms of Doiley, which were those of
the abbey, on the other. 101

VIII. St. Peter s.

In the beginning of the reign of Henry the

Third, Edmund Rich, or, as he is generally
St.

styled, of Abingdon, founded a chantry in this

church, together with a chapel dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin Marye. 162
Jil 162
City of Oxford, p. 303. Ibid. p. 79.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 123

In the parish archives for the year 1490, there

is an entry of 8 s. paid to William Hangfre, carver,
for a tabernacle made for the image of
the Blessed
103
Virgin Marye.

IX. Smith Gate.

On the north of Smith Gate, opposite to Cat
of our Ladye. It was
Street, stood a chapel
and was said to have been an ancient
round,
synagogue of the Jews.
A fair wrought niche on
the east side of this round chapel contained the
other figures, very
image of our Ladye, with
carved in stone, which remained there until
neatly
Parliament. Over the
destroyed by the Rump
of the Blessed
chapel door was the Salutation
164
Virgin by the angel.

Merton College.
In 1268, the chancellor, masters, and scholars
all the parochial
of the University, attended with
in a solemn procession on Ascension
clergy, going
Day to visit the relics of St. Frideswithe, with the
cross borne before them, a certain Jew of the
most consummate impudence, violently snatched
it under his feet, in
it from the bearer, and trod

contempt of Christ. To punish

his which impious
affront,as soon as it was made known to the
who happened
King (by his son Prince Edward,
to be then at he caused strict search to
Oxford),
be made after the criminal, and upon not finding
him, commanded all the Jews of the town to be
should erect at their
imprisoned ; and that they
own proper cost and charges, in the place where
the crime was committed, a stately marble cross of
the most perfect workmanship, having, on one
side, the figure
of Christ crucified, and on the
the Blessed Virgin Marye,
other, the image of
with our Saviour in her arms ;
all which was to be

gilt
with fine gold, and at the top of the cross
was to be an inscription containing the cause of
erecting it. They
were likewise ordered to present
another portable cross of silver, gilt, to the two
proctors, to
be used by them in all future proces
sions of the University, the size of which was
to

JG1
1M Kid. p. 201.
City of Oxford, p. 82.
124 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

be such as was usually borne before archbishops ;

and as the sheriff of the county was to see all this
done before the vigil of next Epiphany, he was
commanded out of hand to levy the expenses of
it, and to suffer no Jew to dispose of any of his

effects, till he had either paid his proportion or

given security for it. But (as they had timely

notice given by their friends in London of what
was coming against them) before the writ could be
delivered to the sheriff, they had privily made
over their goods to several of the townspeople,
so that the work could not possibly go forward
for want of money. To remedy which fraud, the
165
King by a writ, in which he recited all that had
passed, commanded the sheriff to take to his
assistance the mayor of the city, and seize upon
the Jews wherever they could find them,
effects
and then on the work with the utmost
to carry

expedition. A sufficient sum was then raised, but

the work was stopped by an objection that the
cross could not be erected in the place appointed
without damage to some of the neighbouring
inhabitants; whereupon the citizens desired that
it might be placed on a void piece of ground near

the synagogue. But the King and his Council,

disliking that place more than the other, ordered
it to be set up in the area of Merton
College, and
the portable cross to be delivered to the scholars
of the said house, for the use of the University, as
appears from a second document. 106 Finally,
however, the King desired the silver cross to be
placed in the Monastery of St. Frideswithe.
The marble cross fell to the ground in the
time of Henry the Sixth. John Ross copied the
inscription on it, which was as follows :

Quis meus author erat ? Judcei. Quomodo ? Sumptu.

Quisjussit? Regnans. Quo procurante ? Magistris.
Cur? Cruce pro fracta ligni. Quotempore? Festo.
Ascensus Domini. 107
Quis erat locus ? Hie ubi sisto.

Marye s College of Winchester,

St. in Oxford,

commonly called New College.

115
Rot Claus. 53 Hen. III. m. 12.
566
Hid. m. 18.
187
Anglict Judaica, By D Blossiers Tovey, LL.D. Oxford, 1738, pp. 168175.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 125

Founded by William of Wykeham in 1379.

The gateway is of that year; over it, as well as
over the hall, there are still three niches, filled
with elegant images of our Blessed Ladye in the
168
centre, and on either side an angel, and the
founder, in a kneeling attitude. The charter of
foundation is dated November 25, I379. 169

PETERBOROUGH, for- It was burnt by the Danes, and its name then
merly MEDESHAM- changed into Burch, or Burg. It was called
STEDE. Peterborough after its restoration by yEthelwold,
Bishop of Winchester, in 970.
This is another of the great foundations of our
Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and under Abbot Leofric
itattained a high degree of splendour. He was a
worthy member of the noble family to which he
belonged; and the zeal for the house of God, and
His greater glory, which animated the pious
Leofric and the peerless Godgifu, Earl and Coun
tess of Mercia, did not burn less brightly in the
bosom of their nephew Leofric, Abbot of Peter

borough. He was a religious of great merit, and

an ornament to the Order of St. Benedict. Whilst
Abbot of Peterborough, he held four other
abbacies as well, Burton, Coventry, Croyland, and
Thorn ey. I have not ascertained who was his

father, but from his name, I am inclined to

believe that he was a son of the Duke Northman,
son of Earl Leofwin, and elder brother of Earl
170
Leofric, the founder of Coventry.
Under the year 1052, the Saxon Chronicle
says :

"Archbishop Stigand succeeded to the arch

bishopric of Canterbury, and at the same time
Arnwi, Abbot of Peterborough, left the abbacy in

sound health, and gave it to Leofric, a monk, by

leave of the King and of the monks and Abbot ;

Arnwi lived afterwards eight winters. And the

Abbot Leofric then so enriched the monastery,
that was called the Golden-borough; it then
it

waxed greatly in land, in gold, and in silver." 171

168
Oxford Guide Book, p. 63.
163
Louth, Life of W. of Wykeham. Oxford, 1777, p. 1 66.
1:0
Vide ante pp. 20, 36.
171
Rolls Edit. p. 157.
126 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

It is by no means improbable that the Abbot

of Peterborough shared considerably in the muni
ficent generosity of his uncle and aunt, Leofric
and Godgifu.
Under the year 1066 the Saxon chronicle
continues
"And then was Leofric, Abbot of Peter
borough, with the same force (i.e.,
with his cousin
Harold at the battle of Hastings), and sickened
there and came home, and died soon after, on
All Hallows Mass-night. God be merciful to his
soul ! In his day there was all good and all

bliss at Peterborough ; and he was dear to all

the people, so that the King gave to St. Peter

and to him, the abbacy of Burton and that of

Coventry, which Leofric, who was his uncle, had

before founded, and that of Croyland, and that
of Thorney. And he did much for its good to
the monastery of Peterborough, in gold, and in
silver, and in clothing, and in land, as never any
other did before him, or any after him. Then
Golden Borough became Wretched Borough." 172
The Lady chapel was begun in the year 1272,
in the time of Abbot Richard de London. The
foundation stone was laid by the prior, William
Parys.
This chapel was built of stone and wood, and
roofed with lead, and fairly adorned with windows
of glass, and the Abbot caused to be made in a
handsome manner an image of the glorious
Virgin, with her genealogy around her, which is
called a Jesse. He also had painted on the
walls the series of the Kings of England, from
the first to the last, with a brief
summary of their
beneath them. This prior, William,
lives written

purchased an annual rental of five pounds of

silver and more for the lights of the said chapel.
He died in 1826, and lies buried in the church
before the Blessed Virgin Mary, with her Son
"

1 3
seated on a pillar, before the west end of the
church. This chapel was destroyed for the value
of 174
its materials after 165 i.

171 173 W.
Rolls Edit. p. 170. de Whytleseye, Hist. pp. 149, 150.
174
Associated Architectural Societies, vol. iii. pt, i, p. 212.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 127

In the inventory of treasures taken on Novem

ber 30, i539/in the Lady chapel, is enumerated
Imprimis an image of our Ladye with reddis
rissey, set in a tabernacle, well gilt upon wood,
with twelve great images and four-and-thirty small
images of the same work about the chapel.
Item, one tabernacle of the Trinity, and
. . .

one other of our Ladye. 175

In the body of the church was the altar of
Our Lady of Pity, described as the Altar of Our
Ladye s Lamentation, gilt.

PLYMBRIDGE, The Chapel of our Ladye of Plymbridge had

Co. DEVON. the indulgences of Portiuncula, and the Roman
Stations. Boniface the Ninth, 1389 1404, granted
that all who said three Paters and Aves before
the images of our Blessed Ladye, and St. Peter
and St. Paul, on the Nativity, Circumcision, and
Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, the
Ascension, Pentecost, and the Nativity, Annun
ciation, and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin,
176
should gain these indulgences.

PLYMPTON PRIORY. At page 17 of the rental of

Plympton Priory,
September 30, 1481, it appears that William
Strode held of the Convent two tenements, with
gardens adjoining, in Boryngdon Manor, by the
payment of wax to the amount of 4^. and 6d.,
to be burnt before the statue of our Blessed
177
Ladye in the conventual church.

PLYMPTON. The seal of the Priory is curious and interest

ing. the Divine Infant, Jesus Christ,

It represents

seated on the lap of His Immaculate Mother, our

Blessed Ladye, who bears on her wrist a hawk,
with its hood and bell.

POLESWORTH. In the time of Henry the Fourth, Robert

de Herthall gave a rent rising out of lands in
Freseley to the lights of the chapel of our Blessed
178
Ladye in the monastery of Poles worth.

178
Man. Angl, vol. i. p. 366.
17(5
Polwhele, History of Devonshire, 1797, vol. i.
p. 299.
177
Man. Dixc. Exon. p. 130.
178
Dugdale, Antiquitus of Warwickshire, London, 1656, p. 150.
128 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

PONTEFRACT. William Hoghwyk of Pontefract, esquire, by

will dated October 8. 1414, left to the image of
the Blessed Virgin Marye, which stood in the
ladye chapel in the church of All Hallows, a
chain of gold, with a relic of our Lord s cross
enclosed. 179

Dugdale gives an abstract of the will of

Antony Widvile, Earl Rivers, dated June 23,
180
I483, which is reproduced in the Ttstamenta
Vetusta;^ the whole will is given by Bentley.
He says
heart be carried to our
"

I will that my Ladye

of adjoining to St. Stephen s College at
Pue,
Westminster, there to be buried by the advice
of the Dean and his brethren ;
and in case I
die south of the Trent, then I will that my body
be also buried before our Ladye of Pue."
Subsequently, and after the testing of his will,

he adds
"My
will is now to be buried before an
image of our Blessed Ladye Marye, with my
Lord Richard, in Pomfrete, and Jhu have mercy
182
of my soul."

He was succeeded by his brother, Sir Richard

Widvile, a knight hospitaller, who had been
received into the Order of St. John of Jerusalem
in 1469, a fact not generally known.

PYLALE. Not far from this spot, which I have hitherto

failed to identify, there was an image of our
Blessed Lady which was held in great veneration.
It is mentioned in the life of Richard the Second,

by a Monk of Evesham,
183
who, relating the
capture of Sir Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March,
by Owen Glendower, on the feast of St. Alban s
in 1401, says, that whilst Mortimer was at Ludlow,
news was brought to him that Owen Glendower
had come over from the Welsh mountains, and
was on one of the hills by Pylale, where there
was an image of the Blessed Virgin Marye, which
was greatly venerated, and not far from Ludlow.

179 I8 1S1
Test Ebor. vol. i.
p. 375. Baronagium, t. ii. p. 233. P. 379-
188 J88
Bentley, -Exerpt. Hist, p. 248. Edit. Hearne, p. 178.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 129

QUARRYWELL. In Oldham s Register, says Dr. Oliver, there

is a petition of David Waryn heremyte of the
chapel of Our Ladye of Grace at Quarrywell,
within the boundaries of Plymouth, dated April 10,
184
I5i8.

REEPHAM, NORFOLK. Here was a celebrated image of our Blessed

Ladye, to which many pilgrimages were made.
They are mentioned in I428. 185

RIEVAULX. Henry le Scrope, by will dated August 6,

1515, orders his body to be buried before the
altar of Our Ladye of Pity, in the Abbey of
Rievaulx. 186

ROCHE ABBEY. Matilda, wife of Richard Plantagenet, com

monly known as Richard of Coningsborough,
Earl of Cambridge, by will, dated August 15,
1446, desires her body to be buried in Roche
Abbey, in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Marye,
before her image which stands in the south part
of the abbey church. 187

ROTHERAM, YORKS. John Lister, of Rotheram, by will dated

October 10, 1453, leaves to our Ladye s light

ROTHLEY, Bartholomew Kingston, Esq., by his will, exe

Co. LEICESTER. cuted in 1486, leaves a candle to burn before
the image of our Ladye. 189 This curious will is
engraved on a tombstone in Rothley Church,
and is given in full in the History of Leicester
190
by Nichols.

ROYDON, In 1488 lights were given to burn before the

Co. NORFOLK. tabernacle of the Blessed Virgin Marye. 191

RUDBY IN Christopher Conyers, Rector of Rudby, by

CLEVELAND. dated June 22, 1483, leaves two candles to
will,
be burnt before the image of our Ladye in the
choir on the day of his burial; also six torches

184
Mon. Dicec, Exon. p. 131.
185 Mon. Norv.
General History of Norfolk, p. 229 ; Index, Dicec. p. 66.
186
Mon. Ebor. p. 336.
187 188 Ibid. 189
Test Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 118. p. 169. Test. Vet. p. 387.
190
Vol. iii. pt. ii.
p. 960.
m Blomefield, vol. i.
p. 27.
J
130 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

to burn before his body during the elevation, two

of which he bequeathed to the image of our
Ladye in the aforesaid basilica, to be burnt whilst
192
the Masses are being celebrated in it.

RUSTON. Jane Lady Wombwell, widow, by will, dated

July 10, 1454, leaves to the service of our Blessed
Ladye in Ruston, xiijj-.

RYTON. William de Menville was High Sheriff of the

Palatinate in 1363 and again in 1370. By his

will, dated June 20, 1471, he left to the light of

194
our Ladye s altar, xiijj. iiijr/.

ST. ALBAN S ABBEY. Every week there was a procession in honour

of the Blessed Virgin, the monks wearing sur
plices Badulf, seventeenth abbot, 1146
; 1151,
ordained that it should be made to the altar of
our Ladye. 195
Robert, eighteenth abbot, 1151 1166, on
his return from Rome, offered costly gifts at the
high altar of St. Alban s, and caused to be made
a beautiful image of our Blessed Ladye (pukhram
196
Mariolani) with its appurtenances.
The shrine of St. Alban, made by Simon,
nineteenth 1166 1185, was the most
abbot,
magnificent one which Walsingham had seen in
his day ; on the side which faced the west there
was an image of our Blessed Ladye, in high relief,
representing her seated on a throne, holding her
Divine Son in her lap, and adorned with gems
and precious ornaments of gold. 197
William, twenty-second abbot, 1214 1235,
seeing that in all the principal churches in

England a Mass of the Blessed Virgin Marye

was sung each day to note, ordained that a daily
Mass of our Ladye should be sung by six monks
in rotation ; a monk was also appointed to be
the guardian and attendant of our Lady s altar.

192 Test Ebor. vol. iii.

p. 287.
193
Ibid. vol. ii.
p. 177.
194 Wills and Inventories, c. pt. p. 32. i.

198 Gesta Abbatum Monast. S. Albani, a Thoma Walsingham, v. i.

p. 107. Rolls
Edit.
198
Ibid. p. 179.
197 Ibid.
p. 189.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 131
"

We adds Walsingham,
believe," that these
"

arrangements were very pleasing to God and the

Blessed Virgin His Mother, since, from thence
forth the altar received a happy and unexpected
increase of various ornaments, gold and silver
plate, silk vestments, and lights."
The altar was
dedicated by John, Bishop of Ardfert ; Abbot
William said the first Mass and presented a
handsome Missal to it,
in commemoration of his
celebration of the Divine Mysteries. He also

gave a most harmonious bell, which was conse

crated by Bishop John, and named Saint Marye,"
"

to be rung daily, three times, to summon the

ministers appointed for altar duty, to wit, the six
monks, together with the custos of the altar, and
others of the faithful of Christ and devout humble
clients of the Blessed Virgin, who were about to
serve, and to pray, for the prosperity of the
Church and their own. 198
"Furthermore it redounds to the praises of

the same Abbot William," continues Walsingham,

that he presented to our church a most lovely
"

image of the Blessed Virgin Marye, which the

oft-mentioned Master Walter of Colchester had
sculptured with the most consummate skill, and
had it hallowed by Bishop John aforenamed;
and the image, which stood previously where he
so handsomely placed the new one, he set up in
a conspicuous place over the altar, where the
Mass of the Blessed Virgin Marye is daily sung
to note and the wax candles, which we have
;

been accustomed to wreathe with flowers, he

appointed to be lighted before the celebrated
image of the Blessed Virgin, on the days and
nights of her principal festivals, and in the pro
cession which is made in commemoration of the
same."

"Abbot William also beautified the church in

a wonderful manner with a ceiling of that kind
which we call labrescura or ce/afura, 199 with which

Gesta Abbatum Monast. S. Albani, pp. 284, 285.

198

199 Labrescura. This word is incorrect ; the scribe has omitted to put a stroke
over the first a, or the copyist has neglected to mark it in his transcript. It should
be lambrescura, or lambruscura, whence the French lambris. Coupled with celatiira,
it means, most probably, an embossed ceiling. Thus, in the Council of Exeter, A. D
132 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

he concealed the row of timbers above the famous

image of the Blessed Virgin, lest the old age of
the rafters or beams should offend the eyes of the
beholders ;
and for a similar reason, he also
whitened the walls of a greater portion of
the church. Moreover, as he had removed
. . .

the ancient image of the Blessed Virgin, Abbot

William substituted a new one, and set it up in
another place ; and the displaced old beam which
formerly was over the high altar, and which Adam
the Cellarer had erected, he put up in the south
part of the church near the famous image, to the
great adornment of this edifice. On this beam
were figures of twelve Patriarchs and the twelve
Apostles, and in the midst the Majesty, with the
Church and Synagogue. In like manner he
new rood in the middle of the church,
erected a
and a new image of the Blessed Virgin over the
altar of St. Blaise ; and he transferred the old
rood and the image of our Ladye, which he had
previously put up, to the north part of the church,
for the edification of the laity and all who came
and for the comfort of seculars, lest he
thither,
might seem to mar in any degree the good works
which he had done." 200
Hugh de Eversdone, twenty-seventh abbot,
1308 1326, had an especial veneration for the
Blessed Mother of God above all His saints.
Amongst his acts, which were always on a mag
nificent scale, he completed, in a praiseworthy

manner, the ladye chapel at the east of the

church, which had been commenced many years
previously by John de Hertford. This he was
enabled to accomplish by the help of his friends,
Walter de Langley and Alice his wife, and
Master Reginald of St. Alban s, a friend resident

at Rome, who left him two hundred marcs. 201

Thomas, thirtieth abbot, 1349 1396, pre-

1287: "Can. XII. Onera omnium ornamentorum prccdictorum parochiani, sicut

hactenus, ita de cetero supportabunt, libris matutinalibus, unico scilicet psalterio,
fenestris vitreis in cancello, et cdatura supra majus altare dumtaxat exceptis, quas
"

rectores vel vicarii supportabunt, prout in nostra dicecesi hucusque fieri consuevit.
Labbe. Concilia, t. xi. col. 1278.
290
Ibid. p. 287.
S01
Ibid. v. ii.
p. 114.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 133

sented some magnificent vestments in honour of

our Ladye. He also gave the picture over the
high which had been painted in Lombardy,
altar,
and cost, including carriage from London and
all other expenses, 40 /. IQS. %d. Moreover, he
gave to the altar of the Four Candles five pictures
valued at five marcs, which were afterwards put
into wooden frames by Stephen Sothere the
sacristan. 102 The habitual ejaculations of this

good abbot were Jhesu miserere, Sancta Maria

" 203 "

adjitva ! Jesus, mercy Holy Marye, help ! !

Therefore at St. Alban s there were

1. The beautiful image of our Ladye pre
sented by Abbot Robert, 1151 1166, which was
removed by Abbot William, 1214 1235, and set
up over the altar where the Marye Mass was daily
sung.
2. The image of our Lady given by Abbot
William, and which he subsequently transferred
to the north aisle.

3. The image of our Ladye, the work of the

sculptor Master Walter of Colchester, called

Sancta Maria Pulchra "Our Ladye the Beau
tiful,"
which stood in the south transept near the
204
chapter-house.
4. Our Ladye over the altar of St. Blaise.
5. The altar of our Ladye called of the Four
Candles, or Quatuor Cereorum. It was so called

because four candles offered by four officials of

the abbey were daily lighted. And at this altar,
in addition to other Masses, two Masses were

usually celebrated every day for the Church and

for the Dead. 205
6. An
image of our Lady stood in the nave,
before which brother William Wyntershalle, the
almoner of the abbey, erected an altar. 206

ST. EDMUND S BURY, I. The abbey-church, erected by Cnut, was

FORMERLY BEO- consecrated on St. Luke s day in 1032 by
DERIC-WEORTH. ^Egelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, in honour
101
Gesta Abbatum Monast. S. Albani, v. iii. p. 381.
sos
Ibid. p. 421.
SM Ibid. p. 448. The south transept is also called the south cross aisle (ala).
* 05
Annales Monast. S. Albani a J. Amundesham monacho, ut videtur, conscripti,

1421 1440, v. i.
p. 436. Rolls Edit.
408
Ibid. v. i.
p. 448.
134 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

of Christ, His Virgin Mother, and St. Edmund

the King and Martyr. 207
In this church were
1. Our Ladye s altar to the north of the choir ;

2. Our Ladye s altar and chapel behind the

high altar;
3. The crypt of our Ladye under the shrine
of St. Edmund. 208
Amongst the distinguished monks of this
celebrated abbey was Dom Galfrid Waterton, by
some called Hederidus, or of Bury. He was
brother to William Waterton of Waterton, or
Watretone, as it is
given Domesday.in He
is described by Bale and Pits as profoundly
versed in sacred and profane philosophy, and
constantly at his studies, except when called off
by the obedience of his rule, psalmody in choir,
or contemplation and meditation. He had made
his studies, especially in polite literature and
theology, with such fruit, that, as soon as he
had taken Doctor s degree, he applied himself
his
which he made happy progress on
to writing, in
account of the ease and purity of his style, as
well as the continual meditation which he had

long practised in sacred literature. He flourished

about the year 1350. He wrote five works, one
of which was abook on the Angelical Salutation,
and another a Mariale, or a treatise in praise of
our Blessed Ladye. 209

II. St. Marye s.

Prior to the great apostacy this church was
distinguished for its numerous altars, images, and
pictures.
1. The image of Our Ladye of Pity stood in
the south aisle.
210
2. Our Ladye s altar.

Here her image stood in a tabernacle or

"housyng"
over the altar. John Baret, by his
will executed in 1463, says :

807
Gillingwater, Historical and Descriptive Account of St. Edmund s Bury.
St. Edmund s Bury, 1804. P. 50.
408
Index Man. Duec. Norv. p. 78.
s09
Joh. Pitsii, De illustr. Britannia scriptoribus. Paris, 1619, p. 473. Bale,
Scriptor. illustr. nationis Brytan, Basle, 1557, sub, nom.
210
Gillingwater, p. 171.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 135

"Item, I wille there be made a goodly newe

crowne of metal gylte, or ellys wel do in tymbyr
for the ymage of cure Lady in the housyng of
211
ye rerdoos of Seynt Marie auter."

He also desired that the reredos should be

painted with the story of the Magnificat.
"Item,
I geve and be quwethe x marks to

the peyntyng rerdoos and table at Seynt Marye

avter of the story of the Magnificat." 21 2
The altar of St. Marye had chimes ; there
were also chimes in the steeple.
John Baret says in his will :

"

Item, I wille yt John Elys serche sewrly and

owyr se the chymes at Saynt Marie awter and
the chymes in y e stepyl . . . And I wil that the
berere of the paxbrede longyng to Seynt Marie
awter have yeerly so he take hede to kepe
viij</.

my grave clene, the chymes, and Seynt Marie

awter, to wynde vp the plomme of led as ofte as
nedith and to do the chymes goo at y e sacry of
the Messe of Ihv, at the sacry of Seynt Marie
213
Messe on the Sunday . . ."

3. Our Ladye at the Pillar.

John Baret says :

"Item, I wil that the ymage of cure Lady

that Robert Pygot peynted be set vp ageyne
e
the peleer next y pcloos of Seynt Marie awter
with the baas redy therto, and a hovel with pleyn
sydes comyng down to the baas, and in the
myddes of the baas, my candylstykke of laten
with a pyke to be set afore a tapir I have
assygned unto ye v taperes longgyng to the naty-
vite gylde wiche stant alofte before the aungelys,
with chymes to be sette abowte our Lady at
the peler." 214

ST. NEOTS. Roger, prior of St. Neots, and the whole

Convent grant to John Nevill, dark, the five

shillingsevery year which Allan Gery owes us

for hisland in Deuelho to be paid to our sacristy
for the maintenance of a lamp in perpetuity to

su
Tymms. Bury Wills and Inventories, &c., Camden Society, 1850, p. 2O.
signifies the frontal of the Altar,
sia Table here
Ibid. p. 19.
Ibid.
*
Ibid.
136 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

burn night and day, in the time of service, before

the image of the glorious Virgin Marye, Mother
of God, in our church of St. Neot. also . . . We
wish the sacristan to procure a candle as well,
to burn for ever on festal days at High Mass
and Matins and Vespers, and every day during
the Mass of our Blessed Ladye. 215

SALISBURY. In the list given in the Witten bouc the

pilgrimage from Ghent to our Ladye of Salisbury

fons Vrauwe te Sallebry is put down at five
ttvres

Bishop Poore or Poure died on April 15,

1237, at Farrant-Crawford, in Dorset, the place
of his birth, in a monastery of his own foundation,
and there his heart was buried, but his body was
carried to Salisbury, and Leland gives the inscrip
tion from his tomb in the ladye chapel. Orate
pro anima Ric. Poure quondam Sarum Episcopi,
qui Ecdesiam hanc inchoari fecit in quondam fundo
ubi mine fundata est, ex antiquo nomine Miryffeld,
in honore Beata Virginis Marie. 218
On the greater festivals of the year two wax
tapers were kept burning during service time
before the image of our Blessed Ladye.
In August, 1644, Colonel Middleton sent up
to the Parliament, from Sarum, many copes, sur
plices, hoods, plate, and the picture of
tippets,
the Blessed Virgin Mary taken in the minster
there ;
the other relics being divided amongst
the soldiers. 219

SALLE, NORFOLK. Thomas Brygges, Esq., by his will, executed

in 1494, founded a chantry priest to sing for his
soul, for ten years after his decease, at the altar

by the image of our Blessed Ladye in the chapel

of St. James on the south side of the Church of
220
St. Peter and St. Paul in Salle.

815 and
History Antiquities of St. Neots, by George Cornelius Gorham, M.A.
London, 1820, p. 312.
216
Vide ante, p. 65.
217
Cannaert, p. 354.
218
Itin. v. iii. p. 77.
219 Whitlock. Memorials of the English Affairs, &c., 1732, p. 98.
310
Blomefield, v. ii, p, 641.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 137

SANDAL, Jane Lady Wombwell, widow, by will dated

YORKSHIRE. July 10, 1454, leaves to the service of our Blessed
221
Ladye in Sandall church, xiii s. iv</.

SANDWICH. In 1473, amongst the "jewills that longith

unto cure Ladye cherche withyn the town of
Sandewich there was a crown of sylver and gylt
222
yn the hygh autre.
"

for our Lady

SCARBOROUGH. Margaret, widow of Richard Aske of Aughton,

by dated August 7, 1465, leaves a cross of
will

gold set with pearls to the image of the Blessed

223
Virgin Marye of Scarborough.
In the castle green are the remains of an
old chapel. Here, in 1817, was found a piece of
sculpture which is thus described It is two feet
"

high, one foot three inches broad, and one foot

thick. It has a perforation in the centre, appa

rently to attach it to a pillar. On one side is

sculptured, under an ornamental canopy, the

on either side of the cross
crucifixion, with figures
representing our Ladye and St. John; on the
opposite side, also under a canopy, are our
Blessed Ladye with her Divine Son, and at each
end a figure in a pontifical habit, with a mitre
and a crozier. It is now in the Scarborough
224
Museum."

Our Ladye of Scarborough is one of the

sanctuaries named by William Escopp, rector
of Heslerton, in his will dated September 6,
1472, and to which he desires that a pilgrimage
shall be made for him, immediately after his
death. 225
Under an arched vault in the castle yard, and
near the ruins of the ancient chapel, there is a
reservoir of water called the Ladye s Well, sup

posed to be the spring mentioned by the old

historians, and to have been consecrated "in the

181
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 177. I presume this to be Sandal-Magna, near
Wakefield.
3
Boys, Hist, of Sandwich.
"

Canterbury, 1792, p. 374.

551
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 276.
4
"
Theakston s Guide to Scarborough, 1865, p. 9.
* a5
Vide ante sub Gisbro p. 42. ,
138 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

days of superstition"
to the Blessed Virgin
226
Marye.

SEGEFIELD. Thomas Trollop of Thornley, Esq., by will

r
dated April 10, 1552, bequeaths to o Ladye of
227
Pety of Sedgfeld, vis. 8</.

SELLYING. In 1485, Richard Tilley of Sellying bequeaths

to the making of a new image of our Blessed
228
Ladye in the same church, Ixvi s. viii </.

SETERINGTON. In 1422, Sir John Bygod, Knight, Lord of

Seterington, desires to be buried in his parish
church before the image of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. Will dated Monday before the feast of
229
St.Lawrence, martyr.

SHEFFIELD. In 1485, a bridge of three arches was erected

across the river Don ; it was called St. Marye s
bridge from a convent dedicated to our Blessed
230
Ladye which was near it
Here was a chapel of our Blessed Ladye
of the bridge.
George, Earl of Shrewsbury, K.G., Lord
Steward of the King s Household, in his will,
dated August 21, 1537, says:
"I will priests, for the space of
that three

twenty years next after my decease, shall sing for

my soul; whereof two in the parish church of
Sheffield, at the altar where Lady Ann, late my
wife, lieth, and the other in the chapel of our
Blessed Ladye of the Bridge in Sheffield, and that
231
every one of them have xiii marks yearly."

SHAPP, The abbey of Shapp, formerly Hepp, of the

WESTMORELAND. Premonstratensian canons. Here, on every Sun
day, there was an alms of a loaf of bread, of the
value of two pence, called "Saynte Mary loffe,"

Saint Marye s loaf. 232

i.e.,

SHIRBURN IN ELMET, Eufemia Lady Langton, widow of Sir John

YORKSHIRE. Langton, by her will dated August 26, 1463,
leaves to the altar of the Blessed Virgin Marye,

138
Hinderwell, Hist, and Antiq. of Scarborough and its vicinity. York, 181 1, p. 96.
228
227 Wills and Inventories, p. 105. Test. Vet. p. 384.
889 Test. 23
Ebor. vol. i.
p. 411. Lewis, Typogr. Diet, sub nomint.
831 83S
Test. Vet, p. 68 1. Valor Ecclesiasticus, t, v, p, 294,
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 139

below the cemetery of the parish Church of Sher-

burn in Elmett, an image of the Blessed Virgin,
in alabaster, with a collar of SS gilt, part of silver,
and part of gold, also a chain of gold with three
fillets of
pearls and one ruby set in it, and two
pearls, which are never to be taken away from the
said image, but to remain with it for ever. 233

SIGGESTON. At the burial of John Scroby of Siggeston :

234
"To ye lyght of our Ladye, uV."

SILVERTON, June 18, 1478 :

"I, John Suyffnore, Person of
DEVON. Silferton, hale of minde, . . . make my testament
and will as folowith ;
ffirst I bequethe my sowle to
God, my body to be beryed in the chancell of
235
Silferton afore our Ladye."

Here was the fraternity of our Ladye, founded

by Sir Waddame, Knight, and Lawrence
Nicholas
Dobell, priest, to find a priest to pray for them
and the benefactors of the fraternity. The yearly
value of the lands and possessions was
236
vi/. Us. x</.

SCUTTERSKELF. Richard Lyndelay, or Lindley, by will dated

January 1480-1, leaves a wax taper to burn
18,
before the image of the Blessed Virgin Marye in
the porch. 237

SLAPTON. Collegiate chantry of.

1. Our Ladye of Pity.

2. Our Ladye on the left side of the altar

To each Sir Nicholas Morton leaves iiij.

will dated August 26,

SOMERSBY, Is a village about six miles from Horncastle.

Co. LINCOLN. In the churchyard, in 1800, there was standing an
ancient cross, the height of which was fourteen
feet, including the base. The shaft is octagonal ;

on one side of the cross is our Lord crucified, and

on the other side, or the reverse, an image of our
Blessed Ladye and her Divine Son. It is engraved
in the Archasologia. 239

233
T es t. Ebor, vol. ii.
p. 258.
S34
Wills and Inventories, p. 99.
235
Oliver, Ecclesiastical Antiq. of Devon, vol. i.
p. 89, quoting from Bishop
Courtenay s Register, f. 126.
836 S37
Mon. Direc. Exon, p. 474. Test. Ebor. vol. iii.
p. 260.
838
Mon, Dicec. Exon. p. 333. m Vol. xiv. p. 276, plate 50,
140 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

SOUTHAMPTON. Leland says :

About two miles (from the mouth of Hamel-

"

rise Creeke) upward brekith in a great creke out

of the main haven, and goith into the land by
north.
"

On the left hand of this creke by west, a

little from the shore stondith a chapelle of Our
Ladye of Grace, some time hauntid with pil
240
grim es.
Offerings of Henry the Eighth to this sanc
tuary are recorded in his Majesty s Privy Expenses :

"August 4, 2nd Henry

the Eighth, 1510
"

Offerings at Our Ladye of Grace at South

241
ampton, 6s. 8</.

"

August, 8th Henry the Eighth, 1516 :

"

Offering at Our Ladye of Grace at South

24 ~
1
ampton, 05".

SOUTHWARK. I. St. Margaret.

John Barkley, parish clerk of St. Margaret,
by his will leaves four tapers of the light in the
same church to burn against his body there during
his dirge. 243

II. St. Marye Overies, Overy, over the Rie,

that is, across the river, now St. Saviour s.
The original foundation appears to have been
due to an Anglo-Saxon maiden of the name of
Marye, who possessed a ferry-boat, or a Cross-
ferry, or a Traverse-ferry, as Stow calls it, where
London Bridge now stands. The ferryman and
his wife, at their death, left the ferry to their only

daughter, a maiden named Marye. "Which,"

continues Stow, "with the goods left by her

parents, as also with the profits rising out of the
said ferry, builded a house of sisters, in place
whereof now standeth the east part of St. Marye
Overies Church, above the choir where she was
buried unto which house she gave the oversight
:

244
and profits of the ferry."

S4
Itin. vol. iii.
p. 94.
841
Letters and Papers Henry VIII. pt. ii.
p. 1447.
242
Ibid. p. 1472.
243
Manning, Hist, of Surrey, vol. iii.
p. 580.
844 and vol. iv. Stow makes his statement on the report
Vol. i.
p. 53 ; p. 8. of

Bartholomew Linsted, alias Fowle, last prior of St. Marye Overies.

Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 141

Subsequently it became a college for priests ;

aud in 1106 for canons regular. "In this
yeare
(1540)," says Wriothesley,
"after Christmas the
priore of Sainct Marie Overis in Sothwarke was
245
made a parish church."

On the 8th of November, 1428, forty men

were drowned in the Thames, owing to the arro
gance of the Earl Marshall, John Mowbray, Duke
of Norfolk, who would sail to Greenwich. It was

with difficulty any were rescued from the waves,

but, owing to the outcry raised by persons in the
neighbourhood, some were drawn upon land ; but
scarcely ten lives were saved. One of those thus
rescued was by birth a gentleman, Stapleton by
name, who when sinking to the bottom of the
Thames after the barge had broken asunder,
beheld the whole of London beneath the water,
and a countless multitude of demons there ; and
then, thinking of the Blessed Virgin, he suddenly
came up again, and was dragged out by the head
at St. Katherine s, near the Tower, and being thus

saved, he declared this to all persons in London,

to the praise of his Ladye, the Mother of our
Lord. 246
Fabian gives the above date, but does not
mention Stapleton. 247
Joan de Cobham, daughter of Sir Thomas
de Berkeley, and widow of Reginald, Lord
Cobham who died 35th Edward the Third
died on October 2, 1369. In her will she says :

body to be buried in the churchyard of

My
"

St. Marye Overhere, in Southwark, before the

church door, where the image of the Blessed
Virgin sitteth on high over that door ; and I will
that a plain marble stone be laid over my body,
and thereon these words :

Clous qui per ici

Pur Mine 3[oane De doifjam prietj.

She left seven thousand Masses to be said for

her soul. 248

245
Chron. of England, vol. i. p. 113. Camden Soc. 1875.
246
Annales Mem. S. Albani, vol. i. p. 31.
247
Neiv Chronicles. Edit. Ellis. London, 1811, p. 599.
"
Test. Vet. p. 81.
142 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye,

Olave s.
III. St.
In 1738, John Mockyng, of Southwark, leaves
to the light of St. Marye, in St. Olave s Church,

3-r. 4^. Will dated Tuesday after the feast of

249
St. Edmund, King and Martyr.

SOUTHWELL, John Baddesworth, Rector of Laxton, by will

NOTTS. dated December i, 1472, leaves to the high altar
of St. Marye of Southwell his best silver cup with
its cover to be made into an image of the Blessed
250
Virgin Marye.

SOUTHWICK, Leland says :

Co. SOUTHAMPTON. Southwic is a good bigge thorough fare, but

"

no celebrate market. The fame of it stoode by

the Priory of the Blake Chanons there, and a
251
pilgrimage to our Ladye."
Among the privy expenses of Henry the
Eighth in September, 1510, occurs an
Offering of the King to Our Ladye of South-
"

252
wick, 6s. 8</.

SOUTHWOLD. The image of our Ladye of Pity was in a very

253
rich tabernacle, painted and gilt.

SOWERBY, Richard Lassell s, of Sowerby, leaves xiik m\d.

YORKSHIRE. to the support of the light of our Ladye. Will
254
dated April 5, 147 2.
At Sowerby, there was a house called Ladye
Well, near which was a remarkable fine spring,
which in former times seems to have been appro
priated to "superstitious uses,"
and to have been
dedicated to the Virgin Marye, honoured at that
time with the title of our Ladye if, indeed, the :

country hereabouts was not the property of some

religious house, for a considerable part of it went
by the name of Ladyland, as appears from an
entry in MS. Harl. 797, of the 44th of Edward
the Third. 255

249 vol.
Manning, iii. p. 607.
250
Test. Ebor. vol. iii. p. 202.
251
Itin. vol. iii. p. 98.
252
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 1446.
Nichols, Illustrations of Manners and Expenses of ancient times in England.
283

London, 1797, p. 186.

254
Test. Ebor. vol. viii. p. 198.
255
Hist, and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax. By the Rev. John Watson,

M.A., F.S.A. London, 1775, p. 303.

 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 143

STANWELL, Thomas Windesor, of the parish of

Esq.,
MIDDLESEX. Stanwell, in the county of Middlesex, by will
dated August 13, 1479, desires :

My body to be buried on the north side of

"

the quire of the church of Our Ladye of Stan-

well before the image of our Ladye.
. . . . .

Item, I will that there be one hundred children,

each within the age of sixteen, at my month s
mind, to say our Ladye s Psalter for my soul in
the church of Stanwell, each of them having four
pence for his labour; and that at my month s
mind the candles burnt before the rood in the said
church, with all the other lights before our Blessed
Ladye, the Trinity, or any other saints in the said
church be renewed and made at my expense."
He was the father of the first Lord Windsor,
who died in I489. 256

STAMFORD. In the procession of the gild of the Blessed

Virgin Marye, five torches were carried in her
honour. 257
Our Ladye of Stamford is mentioned in the
will of Sir William Bruges, Garter-King-at-Arms,
dated February 26, I449. 258

STANFORD, Thomas Fekys, of Sturston, was buried in the

NORFOLK. church of Stanford, in 1529, and ordered a light
to be found for ever before our Blessed Ladye in
her chapel of Stanford, which was the gift of
Richard Fekys. 259

STOKE BY CLARE. At first it was an alien priory of Austin Friars;

in 1415, it was converted into a collegiate church

by Sir Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. The

chapel of our Ladye attached to this church is
named in the College Statutes as Capella Beate
Marie de Stoke, and appears to have been a dis
tinct foundation.
In 1490, Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, devises :

My body to be buried in the choir of the

"

266
Collins s Peerage. Edit. 1768, vol. iv. pp. 5962.
257 Norwich volume of the Royal Archceological Institute, p. 143, note.
258
Test. Vet. p. 266 ; and Nichols Illustrations, &c. p. 132.
259
Blomefield, vol. i.
p. 543.
144 OM English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

church of our Ladye in Stoke before the image on

the right side of the high altar. 260
In the household accounts of Elizabeth of
York, March 24, 1502 :

261
"Offering to our Ladye of Stoke clare, xx</."

STOWMARKET. The south aisle was called St. Marye s aisle,

because the chapel of our Ladye was at the east
end of it.

This chapel was furnished with a candle-beam,

and an image of our Ladye, which stood in a
niche of tabernacle work, to the making of which
Margaret Wetherard, in 1457, bequeathed the
sum of 40 j ; and to the mending of the candle-
1

beam, which was not, however, completed in

1491, Edward Dilhoo left $s. \d. He also
directed a set of vestments to be prepared for
the priest who officiated at our Ladye s altar.
Another vestment for our Ladye s altar was pro
vided, in 1521, out of a bequest for that purpose
by Margaret Goddard. In 1491, Jone Ry left

33-y. towards the upholding of the Mass of

4</.

our Ladye at this altar. The wills of the

parishioners contain many bequests for providing
candles for the candle-beam of this chapel. 262
Here, before the Holy Sepulchre, stood the
"Common Light;"
and there was also another
known as the "

Bachelor s Light," being main

tained at the cost of the single men of the
parish. To this light, in 1533, Thomas Coyne
bequeathed eight coombs of malt. 263

STRATFORD-ON-AVON. In 1367, William Whittlesey, Bishop of Wor

cester, granted forty days of pardon to those who,
for the sake of pilgrimage, oblation, or devotion,
should visit the image of the glorious Virgin
Marye in the parish church of Stratford-on-Avon ;

or so often image, they should

as, before that

devoutly recite, five times, the Angelical Saluta

tion, in honour of the five chief Joys of our

860
Test. Vet. p. 404.
261 p r vy Expenses,
i
p. 3.
262
Proceedings of the Suffolk Archaological Instittitf, v. ii.
p. 254.
Ibid, p. 252.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 145

Blessed Ladye, kneeling, or with devout inclina

264
tion of the body, or head.

STRATTON, NORFOLK. In 1471 Edmund Cross, rector of this church,

was buried before the image of our Ladye. 265

SUDBURY, SUFFOLK. In the household expenses of Elizabeth of

York:
"March 24, 1502.
286
Offering to our Lady of Sudbury, iu.
"
vi</."

SWAINSTHORP. The Church of St. Mary was demolished at

the Reformation. In 1503 it was called the old

church, and the principal image of our Ladye
was almost decayed. 267

SWANLAND. By will, dated September 5, 1405, Sir Gerard

Usflete leaves one acre of arable land, at the
east end of the village of Swanland, for the

support of a light before our Ladye in the chapel

of Swanland for ever. 268

TANWORTH. Robert Fulwode, Esq., bequeathed a year s

rent of vs. in this form, viz., vihV. to find a
lamp before the image of our Ladye in his
chancel there, and the remainder for the repara
tion of the church, and other purposes. 269

TEWKESBURY. William of Malmesbury derives the name of

Tewkesbury, or as he writes it, Theokesberia,
from Theotokos-beria Qtoroxos-foria and signi
fying "the town of the Mother of God."
270
I am
afraid, however, that this derivation will not hold
good.
On the other hand, Leland derives it from a
hermit of the name of Theocus, whose cell was
near the river, whence Theokesbyria. Sum "

say that Theocus chapelle was aboute the place

354
Pilgrimages to St. Mary of Walsingham, &c. By Erasmus. Translated by
J. Gough Nichols, F.S.A.. Note, p. 99.
265
Gen. Hist, of Norfolk, p. I IO.
265 p 3
507
Blomefield, Parkin s continuation, vol. iii. p. 41.
208
Test. Ebor. vol. i. p. 340.
889 Notices of the Churches of Warwickshire. Warwick, 1847. Vol. i.
p. 4,
170 De Gest. Pontificum Anglorum, lib. iv. p. 294. Rolls Edit.
K
146 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

wher syns the J lies synagogue was." 271 This

derivation seems more probable.
Here two Mercian dukes, Oddo and Doddo,
built a small monastery on their land near the

Severn, in honour of the Assumption of our

Blessed Ladye, in the year 7i5, 272 where they
placed a prior and four or five monks. Oddo
and Doddo died, according to Leland, in 725.
Their brother, Almaric, was buried at Deorhurste
in the little chapel opposite the gate of the
priory there. Formerly this chapel had been a
royal palace. His tomb is shown there to this
day, says Leland, and on the wall above the
door is written :

HANC AULAM DODO DUX CONSECRARI FECIT IN

ECCLESIAM, AD HONOREM BEATVE MARINE VIRGINIS
OB AMOREM FRATRIS SUI ALMARACI. 273

Our Ladye of Tewkesbury was held in great

veneration ;
but I have no particulars of her
shrine.
Isabella Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick,
by her will, dated December i, 1439, desires to
be buried in the Abbey of Tewkesbury. After
giving directions how her statue on her tomb is
to be made, she desires that on the sides thereof
there be "the statues of poor men and women
in their poor array, with their beads in their
hands. I desire that a chalice be made of my
274
great sharpe, and offered to our Ladye in the
Lady Chapel at Tewkesbury." She also gave
her wedding gown and all her clothes of gold
and silk, one only excepted. 275
The following account of an image of our
Ladye at Tewkesbury was communicated to
Guppenberg for the Atlas Marianus. His corres
pondent in England was F. Francis Forster, S.J. :

271 Itin. vol. vi.

p. 72.
272
Man. Ang. t. ii.
p. 53.
873
Ut supra, loc. cit.
874 the word as a noun, expressing, by ellipsis, something
"Sharpe." Johnson gives

towhich the adjective applies, e. g., a poniard or dagger. Halliwell gives the fifth
meaning of the noun sword," and quotes this very sentence.
"a

275
Test, Vet. p. 240 ; and Dugdale, Baron, t. i. p. 247.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 147

"At
Tewkesbury an image of our Ladye
survived the fury of the heretics.
all For several
years a heretic had endeavoured to obtain it of
the Magistrates. At last, after long asking for
it, he received it as a present. Forthwith he
threw it on the ground, and kicked it with his
feet; he then scooped it out for a trough, and often
filled itwith dirty water ; nay, more, he frequently
caused his pigs to drink out of it. But this
sacrilege did not remain long unpunished. All
the pigs that drank out it died; and his children
were equally affected, for there was not one who
was not either blind or lame, or afflicted by some
disease too horrible to mention. The wicked
man himself was reserved for a greater punish
ment, so that posterity might know that the
impious are often punished by means of the
object by which they sin. There had been a
stone trough in which the pigs were fed, before
the statue of our Ladye was desecrated for this

purpose. It was removed and placed close to

the mouth of a well which was unprotected.
The unhappy man one day, in a state of frenzy,
jumped across the stone trough and threw himself
headlong into the well. This horrible occurrence
took place about the year 1625. 276 "

THETFORD. This sanctuary of our Ladye was much fre

quented by pilgrims. The following account is

from Blomefield :

"While the bishopric was at Thetford, and

the see placed in the parish church of St. Marye,
the image of the Holy Virgin was set at the high
altar of that church ; and when the monks left it,
itwas carried and fixed at the high altar of their
new church. But afterwards, a finer image being
made, it was taken down and set in an obscure
place. At that time there was a poor workman
in the town, who incessantly called upon the
Blessed Virgin for relief from an incurable disease
that he laboured under. To him the Virgin
appeared in the night, telling him that if he
would be cured he must hasten to the prior of
her monastery, and in her name command him
878
Atlas Marianus, n. dlxviii. p. 656.
148 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye,
1

to build her a chapel on the north side of the

choir, which he had newly repaired. But upon

neglecting the message she appeared to him
thrice, upon which he acquainted the prior with
it, who, being much astonished, resolved to obey
the command, and build a chapel of wood. But
after this, the sick man returns, and tells him
that she ordered be built with stone, and
it to
shews him the very place where she would have
it done. Not long after the prior went out of
town, and the man, going to talk with him and
not finding him at home, went to a religious old
man who had lived a long time in the monastery,
and gave him a token where the foundation-stone
of the chapel should be placed, by showing him
and everybody else that would see it, for two
hours together, the shape of a cross upon it,

wonderfully adorned with gold and jewels, which

afterwards disappeared. After this, the prior

returning,and not hastening the building, the

Virgin appeared in like manner to a certain
woman in the town, and commanded her to
desire the prior to build the chapel immediately,
which the woman neglecting to do, the Virgin
came to her in the night and much blamed her
for contemning her command, and with that
touched her arm, and she immediately lost the
use of The woman, when she awoke, per
it.

ceiving and much grieving for her negligence,

it,

ran to the monk, and with many tears told him

her misfortune, who advised her to offer an arm
made of wax to the Holy Virgin ; which being
done, her own arm was restored.
"As soon as the chapel was built, the prior,
desiring to increase the people s devotion to the
Blessed Virgin, causes the image which stood by
a door near the chapel to be taken down and
new painted ; and as the painter was cleaning it,
he found a silver plate well nailed on to the top
of its head, and shew it to the prior, who called
the monks, and ordered it to be taken off in
their presence, and then they found the relics of

many saints wrapt in lead with their names upon

them, all which were first sent to Stephen ol

Provence, prior of this house, by William, prior

Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye. 149

of Merlesham, at the request of Hugh Bygod,

and Sir Ralf, monk of Thetford, and most of
them, first of all, came from the Holy Sepulchre at

Jerusalem, there being pieces of the Purple Robe

of our Lord, of the Girdle of the Virgin Marye,
of the Holy Sepulchre, of the Rock of Calvary,
of the Sepulchre of the Blessed Virgin, of our
Lord s Manger, of the earth found in St. John
the Evangelist s Sepulchre, of St. George s Body,
with other reliques of St. Vincent the Martyr, and
of St. Leodegar or Leiger, St. Barbara, St. Gregory,
St. Leonard, St. Jerome, with some of St. Agnes
hair, and of the wooden coffin miraculously kept
from decay, in which King Edmund the Martyr,
many years after his passion, was found whole,
and looked as if he had been alive, with pieces
of St. Ethelred s which she was found
coffin, in
eleven years after her death, whole, and as if she
had been asleep. Pieces also of St. Lazarus
cloathsand sepulchre, besides divers others whose
names are not known, all of which were placed
in the head of the image which the aforesaid
Sir Ralf, monk here, who was born and brought
up in this town, caused to be made at his own
expense, with a tabernacle adorned with small
images, painting, gold, and precious stones. And
besides this, he, with the assistance of Ralf de
Coam, clerk, who was a great friend to the monas

tery, persuaded the Lady Maud de Samundeham,

a and great friend of the house, to
lay-sister,

purchase the famous picture of the Blessed Virgin

in the refectory. All which things he performed
with much labour and great difficulty, and there
fore, for these services, his anniversary was for
ever to be held on the ides of October (15
October).
"All these reliques were kept in the chapel
till its by means whereof it was
dissolution,
richly adorned, such as visited it by way of
devotion usually offering there, it being famous
for the miracles performed by this image,
many
which were noised about in the country, two or
three of which the aforesaid monk tells us of;
as first, that a woman in Thetford overlaid her

child, and finding it dead in the morning, takes

150 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

it up, and runs to the image with it naked, and

at the Virgin s intercession, it came to life again.
Another is of a woman in Thetford who became
dumb by a disease in her throat, upon which
account many gave her money to go and make
her offering to our Ladye at Wulpit, in Suffolk,
and pray for her recovery ; but the woman made
signs that she would go to the image in the new
chapel of the monks, which being consented to,
she was restored, the woman affirming that the
Blessed Virgin appeared to her, and pulled her
tongue up from her throat, which cured her,
wherefore she vowed to keep a candle burning
before the image during her life. Another is of
one William Heddrich the younger, a carpenter,
and Isabel his wife, who lived in Hokham, and
in harvest-time, according to custom, carried their

boy, about three years old, with them into the

field, and whilst the mother was mowing, towards
evening, the child laid down and fell asleep, and
soon after a cart ran over the head and killed
it, which the father, who followed the cart, per
ceiving, took him up, and being much vexed for
his death, runs to a physician in the town with
the child, who assured him he was dead; but
upon their vowing to go a pilgrimage, stark
naked, to the image of the Blessed Virgin in
her chapel at Thetford, the child came to life
again about midnight, and its parents performed
their vows and made large offerings to the Holy
277
Virgin."

These details are given in a MS.,De cedificatione

Capella Virginis Maria in Thetford, et de Imagine
Virginis Beatcz in ilia, by John Brame, a monk of
Thetford, and which is now at Cambridge, in the
Library of Corpus Christi College.
NOTE. This may appear strange according to
our present ideas, but it was by no means unusual,
in those days, for pilgrims to undertake a pil
grimage partially, if not more undressed. In the
representations of the principal miracles wrought
by our Blessed Ladye of the Potterie at Bruges,
the oldest sanctuary of our Ladye in Belgium,
which are depicted on ancient tapestry, there is
877 Vol. i.
pp. 449, 450.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 151

represented the cure of Victor Carr, of Ypres,

who had vowed a pilgrimage in his shirt in zyn
"

2 8
lynen elect Ladye of the Potterie.
to our
Another instance is mentioned in the Annals
of St. Alban s. On the Sunday within the octave
of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Marye, in
1430, John Turke, preaching to the people, men
tioned the miraculous recovery from apparent
death of a boy who had been run over by a cart.
He was carried home, seemingly dead, to his
father s house, where by the prayers of his neigh
bours and parents, and the bending of a piece of
money, and the intervention of the holy martyr,
St. Alban, he was restored to his former health

(vitani) ; and on that day, in the presence of the

abbot and community, the boy, clad only in his
shirt, carrying a candle in his hand, and accom

panied by his father, mother, and the neighbours,

went in solemn procession to return thanks to
God. The abbot intoned the Te Deum, which the
community took up in plain chant, and all the
bells were rung. 279

THIRKLEBY. Thomas Fulthorpe, Esq., of Thirkilbe, leaves

a velvet doublet to the support of our Ladye s
light in the church. Will dated June 29, i47i. 280

THIRSK. To the light of our Ladye in the- choir of

St. Marye s Church John Barker of Thresk, leaves
His. iiiu/. Will dated the Friday after St. Martin,
281
I395-

THRULEGHT, In 1473, William Sondes, Esq., leaves a sum

SURREY. of money to the light of our Ladye in the church
here. 282

The image of our Ladye stood on the north

side of the church. 283

278 N. Dame de la Potterie, Bruges, 1845, P^ 6 V1 P- - 2 4-

279 Annales Mon. S. Attani, vol. i. p. 54. Rolls Edit.
280
Test. Ebor. vol. iii. p. 241.
281
Ibid. vol. i.
p. 206.
283
Test. Vet. p. 332.
S8J
Gen. Hist, of Norfolk, p. 95.
152 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

THOMPSON, or There was a light kept burning before the

THOMESTONE, image of our Blessed Ladye where her gild was
NORFOLK. held. 284

TOTTINGTON, A Gild of the Nativity of our Blessed Ladye

NORFOLK. was kept at her altar in this church, and a light
was continually burning before her image in
service time. 285

TRURO. Our Ladye Portall.

Thomas Tretherffe, Esq., in his will dated
1529, says:
"Item, I will to the image of our Ladye,
called our Ladye and Portall at Truro, to the use
intent thereof, and for the reparations of the said

chapel, and of and for part of the priest s wages

there singing, and of and for the name of the said
Thomas to be put upon the beadroll of the said
286
chapel xxj. sterling.

TUNSTEAD. In this chapel were the tabernacles and

images of our Ladye of Pity and of the Holy
Trinity, the Plough light of Upgate and Hun-
" "

287
gate, and several gilds.

WAKEFIELD. i. The parish church.

Richard Bate of Wakefield, tanner, by will
dated Tuesday after the feast of St. Mark, 1401,
leaves to the high altar \\s. Also to the Blessed
Virgin Marye of the same church Us. ; and to her
288
light vi</.

Our Ladye s chapel was on the south side of

the church. 289
Wakefield upon Calder," says Leland, "ys a
"

very quik market towne, and meately large; well

served of flesch and fische ; both from the se and
by rivers, whereof divers be thereabout at hande.
So that al vitaile is very good and chepe there. A
right honest man shal fare wel for 2 pens a meale.
In this town is but one chefe church. There is a
beside."
chapel

284 285
Blomefield, vol. i. p. 625. Ibid. p. 618
286 !87
Test. Vet. p. 644. Gen. Hist, of Norfolk, p. 961.
288 289
Test. Ebor. vol. i. 286. Whitaker, Loidis and Ekmete, 1816, t. i.
p. 281.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 153

2. Our Ladye on the Bridge.

"There is also a chapel of our Ladye on
Calder Bridge, wont to be celebrated a peregrinis.
The faire bridge of stone, of nine arches, under
the which renneth the river of Calder ; and on the
east side of this bridge is a right goodly chapel of
our Ladye, and two cantuarie priestes founded in
it, of the foundation of the townesmen as sum
say; but the Dukes of York were
taken as
founders for obteyning the mortmayne I herd :

one saye that a servant of King Edwarde s (the

Earl of Rutheland,
Fourth) father, or else of the
brother to King Edward the Fourth was a gret
290
doer of it."

By many this chapel is believed to have been

erected by Edward Fourth, the brother of
the

young Edmund of Rutland who was so ruth

lessly murdered by
the Earl of Clifford, who, says
Leland, "for
killing of men at this batail was
boucher for the repose of the soul
"

called the
of his unfortunate brother, and those who fell in

the battle of Wakefield.

Although this little gem is called the chapel of
Edward the Fourth, existed long previously to
it

his time. By charter dated Wakefield, 3ist

Edward the Third, 1357, it appears that the said
King vested a rent charge of io/. yearly on
William Kay and William Bull, chaplains, and
their successors for ever, to celebrate divine
service in the chapel of our Blessed Ladye, then

newly erected on Wakefield bridge. In 1391,

William de Bayley, of the parish of Mitton, leaves
sol. ad confirmacionem cantarie in capella
"C.

291
See. Marie sup Pont, de Wakefield.
In 1398, there were two chantries ordained in
the chapel on Wakefield bridge, which were
founded by William, the son of John Terry of
Wakefield, and Robert de Heth, or Heath, who
obtained licenses of the King Richard the
Second to give and assign to the chaplains cele
brating divine service in the chapel of St. Marye
on Wakefield bridge, lately built, io/. rent in
Wakefield, Stanley, Ossett, Pontefract, Horbury,
200 If
in. vol. vii. p. 41.
ssl
Tyas, Battles of Wakefield. London and Wakefield, 1854, p. 67.
154 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Heckmondwike, Shapton, Darfield, Purston, Jack-

ling,and Fryston by the water. Thus there is
evidence that the chantry on Wakefield bridge was
erected long prior to the battle of Wakefield, and
the connection of Edward the Fourth with it
appears to have been confined to its re-endowment.
However, there was an estate at Wakefield charged
with the payment of $s. annually, dated 27 Sep
292
tember, 32nd Henry the Sixth, 1453. The
payments were to be made on the festival of
St. Michael, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin
Marye, and Pentecost.
A Protestant historian writes: "Since that
time, 1460, when its cresset-light acted as a
i.e.,

guide to the wayfarer, and to the navigator of the

Calder, it has no doubt frequently been visited by
travellers, whose first step upon entering a town
was to call at some chapel dedicated to the Virgin,
and return thanks for preservation from danger by
flood and field. The chantry has undergone many

strange metamorphoses. It has been degraded

into an old clothes shop, a warehouse, a shop for

flax-dressers, a news-room, a cheese-cake house,

and a tailor s shop. It has been rebuilt in perfect
accordance with its original design, and is,

perhaps, as pretty a specimen of the style of

architecture of the time of Edward the Third as
will be found within the compass of the three
293
kingdoms."
When the restorations were effected in 1848,
the original front being much delapidated by age,
was taken down, and sold to the late Honour
able George Norton, who erected it by the side of
the small lake in the picturesque grounds of
Kettlethorpe Hall, with the object of serving for a
summer-house.

WALBERSWICK. In the churchwarden s accounts there is an

item in 1453 of $s. for "peynting the image of our
Ladye."
In 1491 another similar entry occurs :

29 *
"Peyd for peynting of our Ladye, 13^. 4</."

In 1474, the tabernacle of our Ladye of Pity

here was ordered to be painted and gilded

292
Gentlemen s Magazine, 1801, p. 723.
293 294
Tyas, utmp. p. 73. Nichols, Illustrations, &c. p. 1 86.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 155

according to the form of the image of our Ladye

of Pity at Southwold. 295
In 1500, John Almyngham by his will dated
October 7, gave to the church zo/., of which io/.
were for an organ.
Item, with the residue of the said sume I
"

willa canope over the hygh awter welle done with

oure Ladye and 4 anngelys, and the Holy Ghost
296
goyng upp and down with a cheyme."

WALSINGHAM, This was the most celebrated of all the

formerly English sanctuaries of our Blessed Ladye ; and
GALSINGAHAM. so great was the veneration in which it was
held, that it was called the Holy Land of
Walsingham. An old ballad says

As ye came from the holy land

Of Walsingham :

and other instances occur. 297 How applicable

to this sanctuary were those words of Tobias :

"Nations from afar shall come to thee, shall

bring gifts, and shall adore the Lord in thee,

and shall esteem thy land as holy." 298
Walsingham, or more correctly, Little Wal
singham, a parish, formerly a market town,
is

in the northern division of the hundred of

Greenhoe, in the county of Norfolk, twenty-eight
miles north-west of Norwich, and one hundred
and fourteen from London. It is about eight

miles from the sea, and seven from Wells, the

nearest port ; but it is probable that most of
the pilgrims who came by sea would land at
Lynn Episcopi, now Lynn Regis, which is
twenty-seven miles distant. Ships belonging to
Lynn Episcopi are often mentioned amongst the
pilgrim-transports.
Two hundred feet due east from the east
end of the priory church are two wells, commonly
called the
"

Wishing-wells," but this appears to

be a comparatively late designation, and to
which is attached a modern superstition, that

295 Vide ante sub Southwold, p. 142.

296
Nichols, p. 187.
Bishop Percy s folio Manuscript, Ballads and Romances.
297 Ed. Hales and
Furnevall. Lond. 1868. V. iii. p. 471. Vide also p. 465.
298 c. xiii. v.
Tobias, 14.
156 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

whoever drank of these waters might obtain

what they wished for while they drank.
In or about the year 1061, a little chapel,
similar to the Holy House at Nazareth, and
dedicated to the Annunciation, was built here
299
by Richeldis or Recholdis, a widow, in conse

quence, as the tradition says, of an injunction

received in a vision from the Blessed Virgin
00
Marye.
In the Pepysian Library there is an unique
copy of an anonymous ballad, printed by Robert
Pynson, and which bears internal evidence of
having been composed about the year 1460.
Its title runs thus

Of thys chappel see here the foundatyon,

Builded the yere of Christ s incarnatyon
A thousande complete sixty and one,
The tyme of Saint Edwarde, Kinge of this region.

a the noble some time

It relates how wedowe,"

Lady of the town of Walsingham, Rychold de

Faverches by name, was favoured by the Virgin
Mother of God with a view of the Holy House
at Nazareth, and commissioned to build its
counterpart at Walsingham, upon a site thereafter
to be indicated. It relates very circumstantially
the widow s perplexity

When al formed, then had she great doubte

it was
Where should be sette, and in what manner place,
it

Inasmuch as tweyne places were foune out,

Tokened with meracles of our Laydie s grace.

The Wedowe thought it moste lykely of congruence

This house on the first soyle to build and arrere :

Of thys who lyste to have experience ;

A
chappel of Saynt Lawrence standyth now there,
Faste by tweyne wellys, experience do thus lere :

There she thought to have sette this chappel,

Which was begone by our Ladie s counsel.
All night the Wedowe permayneing in this prayer,
Our Blessed Laydie with blessed minystrys,
Herself being here chief Artificer,

399 Richeld is an old Norfolk name. In 1233, Bartholomew de Creke makes a

grant to Richeld, widow of Robert de Creke. Blomefield, Parkins continuation,
v. iii.
p. 37.
3M Index. Man, Diac. Norv, Leland Collect,
p. 26. v. iii. p. 26.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 157

Arrered thys sayde house with angells handys,

And not only rered it, but sette it there it is,
That is tweyne hundrede foot and more in distaunce
From the first place fokes make remembraunce. 1

The tradition, therefore, is, that Richeld, being

in a state of doubt as to the exact spot on which
to erect the little chapel, but inclining to the
site by the two wells "there she thought to
have sette this chappel"spent the night in
prayer, and that our
Blessed Ladye, "herself
being here chief artificer," reared it with the
assistance of angels, and then "sette it there it

This tradition
is."
fully explains the extra
ordinary veneration in which the sanctuary of
our Lady of Walsingham was held. "Whatever

uncertainty/ says Harrod, "may about still exist

the precise date of the chapel, there can be no
doubt as to its having been the great source of
attractionwhich drew pilgrims from all parts,
and made the priory one of the richest in the
world. Almost from the foundation of the priory
up to the dissolution there was one unceasing
movement of pilgrims to and from Walsingham.
. . . The image of the Blessed Virgin in the
small chapel, in all respects like to the Santa
Casa at Nazareth, where the Virgin was saluted
by the Angel Gabriel, was the original, and con
tinued to the dissolution the primary object of
2
the pilgrims visit."

Soon after the norman invasion, Geoffrey de

Faveraches, as he named, the son of Richeldis,
is

founded and endowed a priory of Austin Canons,

to whom he gave the above-named chapel. The
charter of foundation is to this effect :

"To all, &c. Geoffrey de Faveraches, &c.

"Be it known to you that I have given and
granted to Edwin, my clerk, for the institution
of a religious order which he will provide, and
for the health of my soul and the souls of my

parents and friends, in perpetual alms, the chapel

which my mother founded in Walsingham, in

1
Journal of Royal Arch. Instil, v. xiii. pp. 11$, 1 1 6.
8
Harrod, Cleanings among the Castles and Convents of Norfolk. Norwich^ 1857.
P. 157-
158 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

honour of the Ever Virgin Mary, together with

the possession of the Church of All Hallows, in
the same vill, with all its appurtenances, &c." 3

Geoffrey went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but

the date of his journey is not given.
Subsequently Gilbert, Earl of Clare, confirms
to his clerics of Walsingham, Ralph and Geoffrey,
for the health of his soul and the souls of his
parents, in perpetual alms, the chapel which

Richeldis, the mother of Geoffrey de Faveraches,

had founded in Walsingham, with all its appur
tenances. 4 And a charter, of a later date, of
Robert de Brucurt, addressed to William, Bishop
of Norwich, dated A.D. 1146 1174, makes known
that he gives and grants to God and St. Marye,
and the canons of Walsingham, for the health
of his soul, &c., all the possessions which that
church held on the day when Geoffrey de
Faveraches 5
set out on his journey to Jerusalem.
This is the correct early history of Walsingham,
and which some writers have strangely confused ;
and there appears no reason to doubt that
Richeld, the mother of Geoffrey de Faveraches,
was the original founder of the celebrated chapel
of our Ladye, and at the period usually assigned,
A.D. 1 06 1. The chain of evidence is satisfactory.
The chapel of our Blessed Lady stood length
ways, east and west, on the north side of the

church, which was built up to it, and communi

cated with it by a door. This church was two
hundred and forty-four feet in length by seventy-
eight in width, interior measurement. The priory
adjoined the church on the south side. About
two hundred and thirty feet due north, on a line
drawn from the east end of the church, stood the
Knight s Gate," leading into what is now called
"

"

Knight s Street."
This renowned sanctuary is generally spoken
of as having been the counterpart of the Holy
House at Nazareth. Fortunately the dimensions
of the Walsingham chapel have been preserved
by William of Worcester, and thus a comparison
3
Men. Aug. vi. p. 71. MS. Cott. Nero. E. vii. f. 7.
* 5
Ibid. Ibid. p. 73.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 159

becomes possible. I propose, therefore, briefly to

give such details of the Holy House of Nazareth,
now of Loreto, as bear upon the question, using
for myprincipal authority a most interesting work,
entitled Loreto and Nazareth, drawn up from the
researches of many writers, and from his own
most careful investigations in both places, by the
late lamented Father of the Oratory of St. Philip,
6 It is to be regretted
William Antony Hutchison.
that this instructive book is not more known. It

has lately been translated into German.

The Holy House was miraculously translated
by the angels from Nazareth, and placed by them
on the summit of a hill at Tersatto, a small town
near Fiume, about sixty miles south of Trieste, on
the eastern side of the Adriatic gulf, on the 6th of
May, A.D. 1 29 1.
7
Three years later, on the loth
of September, it was again translated across the

Adriatic, and placed in a wood, about a mile from

8
the sea-shore, and four miles from Recanati. In
the of the
August, 1295, it was transferred to hill

two brothers finally, in December of the same

;
9
year, it was translated
to its present position.
The wood where the Holy House rested was in
a district called Lauretum either from the laurels
that grew in abundance there, or because it

belonged to a rich lady of Recanati, called

Laureta; and hence the appellation of Domus
Lauretana, or "House of Loreto," which has
11
ever since remained attached to it.
Father the
"
"

Although," says Hutchison,

House now at Loreto is identically the same as

6
Loreto and Nazareth. London: E. Dillon, 2, Alexander Place, Brompton, 1863.
7
Ibid. p. 4.
8
Ibid. p. 17.
Ibid.
10
I have found instances of both these names elsewhere in the thirteenth century.
Thus the Chartulary of Notre Dame of Paris contains a charter, dated November,

1264, of Peter, called Tonniaus

de Lorreto in Boscagio, and Anne his wife (vol. ii.
there is a precept of Henry, Archbishop of Sens,
f. 224, n. xix.). In February, 1256,
n. i, f. 290) ; and in a charter of June, 1258,
given at Loretum in Boscagio (ibid.
some lands are described as lying contiguous to the vineyard of Philip de Loreto
(ibid. f. 468, n. cvi.). This place was Lorrez-le-Bocage, in the department of Seine
et Marne, in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau.
And a lady of the name of
Laureta was an early benefactor to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem
in England.
11
Ibid. pp. 25, 26.
160 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

when it arrived there nearly six centuries ago, yet

some alterations have been made in it, of which
we now proceed to give an account. Soon after
the House was finally settled in its present site,
the people of Recanati, seeing that it stood on the
bare earth without foundation, feared to allow its
ancient walls to be exposed to the violence of the
wind and the rain. They determined, therefore,
to surround the Holy House with a thick brick
wall, which should serve as a support and protec
tion to the ancient walls; but when it was finished,
it was found that the new wall had
separated from
the old walls in such a manner, that a boy with a
lighted candle in his hand could easily pass
between the two. This separation was commonly
thought to be miraculous, and it was believed that
our Lady wished to show that she had no need
of human assistance to support the walls of her
Holy House. Had the separation only taken
place here and there, there would be nothing
astonishing, as it might be thought to be merely
the effect of a settlement of a new wall ; but from
the account given, something more than this
seems to have taken place, as the new walls all
round the building seem to have separated from
the old walls, and to a considerable distance.
But whatever may have been the reason, there
was no doubt of the fact, for Riera, who died
anno 1582, says that in his day there were living
many who had beheld this prodigy with their own
eyes; and amongst the rest, Rainerius Nerucci,
the architect of the 12
Holy House."

In the course of time the magnificent church,

which contains the Holy House under its dome,
was erected. It seems to have been begun about
the year 1468 by Pope Paul the Second, and
was greatly added to and beautified by Clement
the Seventh. This Pontiff determined to com
plete the incrustation of the Holy House with
marble, according to the plan decided on by
Leo the Tenth. Whilst the sculptors were
preparing their work, Nerucci, the architect, re
moved the brick wall, which, as has been said,
was built around the House. He then erected
12
Lortto and Nazareth, p. 14.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 161

in its place a new wall, which was afterwards

clothed with marble. On this wall the present

roof of the Holy House is supported; for the

Pope fearing lest the ancient roof, which was of

wood, might take fire some day through the
quantity of lamps that were always burning in
the House, ordered a new roof of stone to be
13
put in its place.
It has been ascertained on several occasions
that the walls of the Holy House have no
foundations whatever. 14
The successive renewals of the pavement from
time to time were rendered necessary by the crowds
of worshippers- who frequented the Holy House.
Originally a pavement of tiles seems to have
been laid down, either at Tersatto or Loreto ;
but in the time of Sixtus the Fourth, this was
replaced by a pavement of marble, the pilgrims
having carried off most of the tiles of the ancient
pavement as relics. 15

May not the bequest of William Haute, in

1462, of "one piece of that stone on which the
Archangel Gabriel descended when he saluted
the Blessed Virgin Marye have been in reality,
"

a bit of this ancient pavement? It will be

observed that this piece of stone is not spoken
of as being considered a relic, and, as such,
exposed for public veneration, but the testator
merely bequeaths it to be placed under the foot
of the image of our Ladye at Bourne. 16
The was made
great alteration, however, which
in the Holy House was one which,
at this time,

though very convenient for the faithful, was such

a bold step, that only one possessed of the
authority of Supreme Pontiff could have ventured
to order it. Up to the time of Clement the
Seventh, the Holy House had but one door, the
ancient door, namely, on the north side. This
was found to be very inconvenient, and to
cause much confusion among the crowds who
were striving to enter or to leave the House.
Besides this, the doorway in question existed in
and Nazareth, ;i 15
Loreto p. 28. Ibid. p. 29. Ibid. p. 31.
18
See ante % p. 4, sitb Bourne.
L
1 62 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the times of the Holy Family. It was, therefore,

manifestly unseemly that so sacred a spot should
be the scene of those undignified struggles on
the part of the people. The Pope, therefore,
determined to close up the ancient door, and to
break three new doorways in the walls of the
House two of them being respectively in the
north and south walls, towards the western extre
mities, and giving to the people ample means
of entry and egress ; the third doorway is in the
south wall, and opens into the Sanctuary of the
Holy House, behind the altar. His Holiness
accordingly gave orders that these doorways
should be made. 17
During the progress of these works, the small
window in the west wall was enlarged and brought

nearly into the centre of the wall, instead of being,

as theretofore, nearer to the north than to the
south wall. The materials of the new doorways
were used partly to block up the ancient
doorway, partly to enlarge the Sagro Cammino,
and the remainder were buried underneath the
pavement. At the same time the altar, which
formerly stood against the middle of the south
wall, was removed to its present position, i.e.,
about twelve feet from the east end, it is about
four feet six inches long, with the top stone
projecting, which
a dark black-looking slab,
is

apparently of marble. It is all enclosed within

the present altar. Behind the altar the Sagro
Cammino, or Sacred Hearth, was considerably
added to and brought into its present form.
Above this, the image of our Lady of Loreto was
placed, which had come in the Holy House when
it arrived at Tersatto. These works were com
menced on the loth November, 1531, and were
not finished till the 5th July, i538. 18
Summing up, therefore, the following data are
obtained :

i. The Holy House of Nazareth had but one

door, which was nearly in the centre of the north
wall, and one window which was in the west wall,
and nearer to the north than to the south wall.
17 18
Loreto and Nazareth^ p. 32. Pp. 35, 36.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 163

Father Hutchison is inclined to believe that

formerly there was a second doorway where the

Sagro Cammino now stands. 19
2. The stood against the south wall.
altar
It is not stated where the image of our Ladye was
placed.
3. These
arrangements were all changed,
the alterationsmade by order of Clement the
Seventh, when the altar was placed about twelve
feet from the east end, and the image of our

Ladye in the enlarged niche called the Sagro

Cammino.
The dimensions of the Holy House, internal
measurement, are, length 3 1 ft. 3! in., breadth
1 3 ft.
4^ in.

Now to return to the Walsingham sanctuary,

chapel of the Annunciation arrerd with
"

the little

angells handys," which formed the glory of Wal

singham in its most palmy days, and which is

described as being similar to the Holy House

of Nazareth. It is certainly curious and interest

ing to notice how a miraculous translation is also

associated with its early history, nearly two
hundred and thirty years before the actual trans
lation of the Holy House itself from Nazareth
to Tersatto in 1291.
The earliest details extant about this renowned
sanctuary are those given by William Botoner,
generally known as William of Worcester. He
was born at Bristol, c. 1415, and was educated
at Oxford, mainly at the expense of Sir John
Fastolf, of Caistor in Norfolk, whose squire he
afterwards became. His Itinerary is preserved in
the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
and was published by Nasymth in 1778. He
was at Walsingham, probably, in 1479.
appears that, like the Holy House of
It

Loreto, the chapel of the Annunciation at Wal

singham which I shall call, in the words of
William of Worcester, the Cafella Beata Maria.
was covered in by an outer building, but I have
found no record of the date when this outer
covering was erected. William of Worcester calls

Pp, 67 88,
164 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye.

it the novum
opus, or new work ; but this term is
applied both to new buildings, and to buildings

pulled down and rebuilt, therefore his words only

prove that at the time of his visit, a new building,
which enclosed the Capella, had recently been
erected. These are the measurements which he
has recorded :
Longitudo novi operis de Walsingham
continet in to to 16 virgas; latitudo continet infra
arcam 10 virgas, or 48 by 30 feet. Longitudo
capelle Beate Marie continet 7 virgas 30 polities;
latitudo continet 4 virgas 10 pollices, ^ or 23 ft. 6 in.

by 1 2 ft. 10 in. Thus there was ample space for

pilgrims to circulate between the walls of the

capella and those of the novum opus.

Erasmus, who was at Walsingham in May,
1511, describes the Ladye chapel by templum,
and as not completed, within which was the

sanctuary of our Ladye, which he variously calls

the intimum sacelhim, sacelhim angustum, and
conclave dives Virginis.^ Therefore the templum
inabsolutum angustum, and the conclave divce

Virginis or sacelhim angustum of Erasmus are,

respectively, the novum opus and the Capella

Beatce Maria of William of Worcester.
The description of the position of the Ladye
chapel which Erasmus gives, is confirmed by
some excavations made at Walsingham not many
years ago. adjoined the priory church on the
It
north side. Erasmus, speaking of the templum
inabsolutiim, says: "Our Ladye does not dwell here
for the building is not yet finished;" and then,
like a Dutchman, he feelingly adds the place is
:
"

very draughty on all sides ; the windows are open,

and the doors are open, and not far off is the
ocean, the father of winds" Locus est undique
perflabilis patentibus portis, patentibus fenestris, et
in propinquo est oceanus, ventorum pater. Tis "

20
Itincraria Symonis Simeonis et Will, de Worcester, ed.
Nasmyth, 1778, p. 335.
In Browne Willis Mitred Abbeys, Addenda, vol. ii. p. 330, this passage of William
of Worcester is thus given: "Latitudo continet infra arcam 10 The Rev.
virgas."

James Lee Warner has most obligingly sent me a tracing of the original MS., which
gives aream beyond all doubt whatever.
21
Peregrinatio religionis ergo. Inter Colloquia Erasmi, Opp. Lug. Batav. 1703,
t. i. col. 774, et seq.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 165
22
a hard case," says Menedemus, "where then
does our Ladye dwell?" Ogygius, i.e. Erasmus,
replies Within that building, which I have said
:
"

was unfinished, there is a small chapel ligtieo

tabulatu confectum, which admits by a narrow little
door, on either side, those who come to salute
our Ladye; the light is feeble, in fact, scarcely
any, excepting from the wax-candles. A most
delightful fragrance gladdens one s nose" in eo

templo quod inabsolutum dixi, est sacellum atigustum,

ligneo tabulatu construction, ad ntrumque latus per
angustum ostiolum admittens salutatores. Lumen
est exigum; nee fere nisi ex fragrat odor
cereis ;

naribus gratissimus. It is, indeed, an agreeable

surprise to learn that anything was pleasing to
this jesting and conceited ex-Augustinian canon.
I accept his statements for the simple reason
that he had no object to gain, no whim to gratify,
by being otherwise than correct in them. In
regard of the patentes portce, it is most probable
that the capella had no doors, a measure, which
the convenience for the constant influx of pilgrims
into the little chapel, would suggest ; and it is
extremely likely that the doors in the north wall
of the novnm opus and in the twelve foot passage
from the church though the south wall were also
kept open during the day for the same reason.
Erasmus had announced his intended visit to
Walsingham in a letter to Andrew Ammonio,
dated Cambridge, 8th May, 15 n. 23 Now it so
happens, that just about this time, the windows
of the novum opus were being glazed at the
expense of the king. In the royal payments of
the third and fourth years of Henry the Eighth,
there are two entries as follows :

i 8 June, 1511, part payment for glazing our

24
Ladye s chapel at
Walsingham, 2o/.

November (no date), 1512, Bernard Flour,

for glazing our Ladye s chapel at Walsingham,
2/. us.
22
One of the two characters of the dialogue.
23 col. 106.
Ep. cxiv. Opp. t. iii. pt. i.

2
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry the Eighth, vol. ii.
pt. ii.
p. 1451.
25
Ibid. p.. 1 458.
1 66 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

These fully explain how the windows happened

to be open when Erasmus was at Walsingham,
and confirm his account.
Several years ago the Rev. James Lee Warner,
cousin to the present proprietor of Walsingham,
made some excavations, and laid bare the founda
tions of the ladye chapel. He has given a very
interesting account of his discoveries, accom
panied by the Journal of the Royal
plans, in

Archaeological Instituted I have read and studied

it with great pleasure, and it has afforded me
valuable assistance. To use his words :
"

The
measurements of this building coincide so exactly
with the dimensions of the novum opus, as already
quoted from William of Worcester, that not a
shadow of a doubt can exist as to their identity." 27
From the plans which Mr. Lee Warner has pre
pared, the walls of the novum opus were of con
siderable thickness. There were three doors,
one in the north, and one in the south wall,
opposite to each other, and no doubt facing the
two doors of the sacellum angustum, which Erasmus
mentions :
they were nearly in the centre of the
two walls.The third door, and apparently of
smaller dimensions, was in the west end, and not
in the centre, but nearer to the south wall. The
pavement of the novum opus was about 2ft. 6 in.
above the level of that of the church, from which
the entrance was up three steps. In the plan
of the ruins of Walsingham made by Mr. Lee
Warner, the east wall of the novum opus is repre
sented as of an extraordinary thickness, it being
almost twice that of the other walls, and conse
quently about 24 feet wide.
And now two questions arise : i. William of
Worcester describes the width of the novum opus
as being ten yards latitude continet infra aream
:

10 virgas. What
to be understood by infra
is

aream ?
Mr. Lee Warner, in the interesting article, to
which I have already alluded, says The area :
"

(whatever it
was) seems to have been identical
with the platform of solid masonry which forms
28 27
Vol. xiii. pp. 115125. Ibid. p. 123.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 167

the eastern end of the opus novum. The expres

sion infra aream may imply that it was elevated,
but why William of Worcester excluded it from
his internal measurement of the chapel, of which
it formed the most honourable part, is not quite
28
so apparent. But, in a letter to me on this

subject,"
he says :
"

Upon subsequent reflexion,

I believe that the great thickness of the east
wall was apparent, not real; and that it was
in fact only a portion of wall lying having flat,
been partially undermined, and so fallen but :

roots of trees presented a difficulty in exploration.

Are you cognizant of a remark of Matt. Paris?
who, describing the solemnity, A.D. 1247, tn ^ m
confessor s chapel, says: "Rex advocavit eum, et
prsecepit residere in gradu, qui erat medius inter
sedile suum et aream. P. 980, 4to ed. 1551."
This exploration has removed one difficulty,
for I had been at a loss to account for the

extraordinary apparent thickness of the east wall

of the novum opus, viz. about 24ft. There can
be no doubt that area, as used by William of
Worcester, refers to the floor of the capella, which
must have been above the level of the pavement
of the opus novum. Moreover, in all probability, a
step ran round the outside of the capella, whether
level or not, with its floor, as is the case at
Loreto and Einsiedeln ; and this step and floor,
together, formed the area of William of Worcester.
I think that infra aream is to be taken as
apply
ing equally to longitude and latitude. Unfortu
nately, the ruins afford no assistance. If the

pavement of the novum opus had been spared,

it would have
supplied valuable evidence for a
solution of the question; but Mr. Lee Warner
informs me that the pavement of the capella was
"

so thoroughly upturned by Thomas Cromwell and

his agents, that not only wood, but stone, had
for the most part vanished." And this leads to
the second question.
2. Was the area of William of Worcester the

ligneus tahtlatus of Erasmus ?

In eo temple, says he, quod inabsolutum dixi,
28
Vol. xiii. pp. 123, 124.
1 68 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

est sacellum angustttm, ligneo tabulatu constructum,

&c. How is the expression ligneo tabulatit con-
strttctum to be construed? Weever renders it,

small chapell, but all of wood;" 29 Gough

"a

Nichols, small chapel made of boards;" 30

"a

and Mr. Lee Warner speaks of it as the wooden "

sacellum," but the reading which he quotes is,

ligneo tabulate construction?

1
The text which I

have used is that of Vander Aa s edition of 1703 ;

and I have examined five other editions of the
Colloq uia, all of which give ligneo tabulatu ?*
Facciolati does not mention the word; 33 Ducange
34
gives only one meaning, pavimentum floor." "a

It seems to be the general impression that the

capella of Walsingham was built of wood, but I

have found no authority for it, unless these words
of Erasmus have given rise to it. The real solu
tion of the difficulty lies in the sense in which
Erasmus used them. But what is to be under
stood by these lines of the anonymous ballad of
the year 1460, which I have already quoted?

When it was al formed, then had she great doute

Where it should be sette.

Do they refer to the completion of the building

materials, and as being ready for the builders ; or
will they warrant the inference that the little
chapel was built of wood, and fitted together, and
put up, prior to its being finally erected ?

The sanctuary of our Ladye, the Capella

Beata Maria of William of Worcester, the
Conclave Divce. Virginis of Erasmus, is
very briefly
described by him.
"

When you look in you would

29 Anc. Funeral Monwn, p. 860.

30
Pilgrimages Mary of Walsingham,
to St. &c. Newly translated by John Gough
Nichols, F.S.A. Lond. 1875, p. 13.
31
Journ. Roy. Ant. lust. vol. xiii. p. 124.
32
I. Amsterdam!, 1638, p. 271. 2. Lugd. Bat. 1664, p. 416. 3. Ibid. 1665,

p. 368. 4. Paris, 1674, P- 358. 5- Lugd. Bat. 1729, p. 416. I have not been able
to see the Basle edition by Frober of 1
540.
33
Ed. Patavii, 1805.
34
Ducange says: "Tabulatus, pavimentum. Andreas Floriac. in Vita MS.
S. Gauzlini Archiep. Brituric. lib. i. Novumvicum etiam lapideo Tabtdatti fabricavit
ecdesiam. Hinc : Tabulatus pro pavimcnto stratus. Chronicon Romualdi ii.
Archiep.
Salern t. 7. Muratori col. 194. Panormi palatium satis pitlchrum jussit cedificari, in

quo fecit capellam miro lapide tabulatam.

Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 169

say that it is the abode of the saints, so brilliantly

does it shine on all sides with gems, gold, and

silver." What light there was was afforded by the

numerous wax candles, therefore the inference is
that it had no windows. But where did the altar
stand, and where was the celebrated image of
our Blessed Ladye placed? All that is known
on this point is from Erasmus, who laconically
remarks that our Ladye stood in the dark at the
"

right side of the altar

"

ilia stabat in tenebris ad

dextram altaris; and one of the canons was in
constant attendance adstat altari canonicus qui-
dam to receive and take care of the offerings of
the pilgrims. As to the actual situation of the
altar nothing is known. Judging from the

position of the doors of the opus novurn, which

must have corresponded with those of the capella,
it is most probable that the altar stood at the east
end, and the image of our Ladye in the south-east
angle.
The celebrated image of our Ladye was of
wood. Erasmus describes it as little image, "a

remarkable neither for size, material, or execu

tion"
imaguncula, nee magnitudine nee materia
nee opere prcecellens j and this is the only description

extant, so far as I can ascertain, of Our Ladye of

Walsingham. Whether it was a standing or a
seated image is a question which must remain
unanswered. The seal of Walsingham represents
our Ladye as seated, but I do not think that it
can be received as evidence of the image of our
Ladye. I may add, that the image of our Ladye
of Loreto is standing, and about three feet in
height.
On comparing the measurements of the capella
of Walsingham with those of the Holy House of
Loreto, it will be seen that they do not correspond.
The dimensions of Loreto are length, 3ift. 3f in.;
breadth, 13 4|in. ft. Of Walsingham length,
35
23ft. 6 in. ; breadth, 12 ft. ioin. Loreto is built
of the limestone of Nazareth ; there is no record
of what material the capella of Walsingham was
built, for ligneo tabulatu construction cannot be
85
Loreto and Nazareth, p. 82.
170 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

36
construed as "built of wood." Both were
enclosed by an outer building. Presuming the
door in the north wall of the novum opus to have
been opposite to the door of the capella, the
position of this latter one would have corresponded
with that of Loreto before the alterations com
menced by Clement the Seventh in 1531. The
altar at Loreto formerly stood against the north
wall :
nothing is known of the position of the
altar of the capella except that the image of our
Ladye was on its right. And was the image itself
of English workmanship, or was it a copy of our
Ladye of Nazareth, and brought from the Holy
Land by Geoffrey de Faveraches, the son of the
founder ?

The anonymous ballad, written about the

year 1460, records that a chapel dedicated to
St.Lawrence stood by the two wells, on the spot
where Richeld originally intended to have erected
the chapel of our Ladye. Erasmus describes this
chapel as being full of wonders
"

;
and adds, "

that the wells were covered by a wooden shed,

which, as the guide informed him, was brought

thither suddenly, in the winter season, from a long
distance. Evidently he was indistinct in his
recollections, and confounded the tradition of the

chapel of our Ladye with the shed. He ridicules

itspretended antiquity, and remarks that it bore
no signs of old age; moreover, that when he
expressed his doubts on this point, his guide,
while seeming to assent to what he said, pointed
out an old bear s skin attached to the rafters of
the shed, and seemed amazed that he had not
noticed this evident proof of antiquity Erasmus !

gives a very plausible account of what passed in

conversation between himself and his guide, yet
he himself did not understand a word of English,
for he mentions, in another part of the Dialogue,
that he had to avail himself of the services of
young Robert Aldrich as an interpreter. No doubt
the lively Cantab and the East Anglian guide
must have been poking fun at the Dutchman;
indeed Erasmus seems to hint as much in another
36
See Parker s Architectural Glossary for details.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 171

part, when he says that he was afraid to place

entire confidence in Aldrich. It does not matter
how this bear s skin came
may have been thither; it

hung up by a pilgrim as a curiosity and an

offering, just as Erasmus hung up his Greek ode
in the Ladye chapel.
The latest account of the wells is by John
Henry Parker, C.B., D.C.L., in 1847 The holy :
"

wells are quite plain, round, and uncovered, and

on one side of them is a square bath; on the
other side a small early English doorway." 37
The story of the Knight, and of the Knight s

Gate, which
opened into Knight Street, is
given by Blomefield on the authority of an old
MS. ; but it is to be regretted that he did not
add where this MS. was preserved. This is what
he relates :

Near the entrance into the close of the

"

priory, on the north, was a very low and narrow

wicket door not past an elne hye, and three
quarters in breadth ; and a certain Norfolk
knight, Sir Raaf Boutebourt, armed cap-a-pie and ,

on horseback, being in days of old (1314) pur

sued by a cruel enemy, and in the utmost danger
of being taken, made full spede for this gate, and
invoking this Lady for his deliverance, he imme
diately found himself and his horse within the
close and sanctuary of the priory, in a safe
38
asylum, and so fooled his enemy." Erasmus
says that a brass plate representing Sir Ralph was
nailed to the gate. The name of the Knight "

Street
"

is the sole local evidence now remaining

of Sir Ralph Boutebourt s escape.
The by which pilgrims arrived
principal road
at Walsingham passed by Newmarket, Bran

don, and Fakenham ; it is still known by the

names of the Palmers Way, and Walsingham
Green Way, and it may be traced pretty accu
rately along the principal part of its course for
nearly miles through the diocese.
sixty The
who came from the north crossed the
pilgrims
Wash near Long Sutton, and went through Lynn,
most probably taking the way which passed by
87 3S
Norwich vol. of the Royal Arch. Institute, p. 1 88. Vol. ix. p. 280.
172 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the priories of Flitcham, Rudham or Roodham,

and Cokesford. Another great road used by
passengers on pilgrimage to Our Ladye of Wal-
singham led from the east, through Norwich and
Attlebridge, by Bee Hospital, where gratuitous
accommodation for thirteen poor pilgrims was
provided every night; this was also sometimes
called the Walsingham Way. At Hilburgh, South-
acre, Westacre, Lynn, Priors Thorns, Stanhoe,
Caston, and many other places, were chapels in
which the pilgrims offered up their prayers as they
39
passed on to Our Ladye of Walsingham. The
Galaxy, or Milky Way, was also called the
"Walsingham pointing to that angle,
Way,"
as
and it retained this name to the days of Blome-
fleld, who mentions that he had heard old people
40
use it.

The prosperity of the little town of Walsing

ham was dependant upon the crowds of pilgrims,
who flocked thither from all parts, and conse
quently inns and hostelries predominated. This
feature will have been noticed by those who
have been at Einsiedeln, and other celebrated

places of pilgrimage, where the sanctuary alone is

the object of attraction.
On entering Walsingham from the south,
close to the walls of the priory stood "le
Beere,"

formerly Dowe."
"le Then in the Friday market
place were the "White Horse," and
"

Crownyd
Lyon;"
in the adjoining street the "Mone and

Sterr,"
the
"

Cokk," the "Sarassyns Hede," the

"Swan and the Bull," which had appropriated part
of the buildings of the "Angel now wasted;" and
then the "

Ram "

offers hospitality. In Stonegate,

there were the Bolt and
"

Chekker," and the "

Toun." North Town-end there were the

In
"White Hart" and the "Madynhede;" by the
Prior s water-mill the "Gryffon"and the "Bell;"

in Church Street the

"

and by the church

Crane,"

yard, the
"

George." And there were, no doubt,

many more. 41
39 Mon. Norv. Introd.
Index. Dicec. p. xix.
Vol. i.
p. 486.
41
Augmentation Office Papers, D. 9. This contains a survey of the Prior s

possessions in the town. See Harrocl. p. 175.

 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 173

Some of the inn-holders of Walsingham seem

to have considered the pilgrims as fair objects to
be "fleeced,"
and fleeced them accordingly. It is

surmised that this extortion led to the confla

gration of four of the hostelries in 1431. John

Amundesham relates that "in this year, after

Easter, there was a great fire in Walsingham

Parva, which consumed four of the inns in that
town ;
or through what cause, this
by whom,
misfortune happened, no mortal knew, except that
it might be from revenge for the excessive and

unjust extortionate charges, which the persons

living in those inns had exacted from the pilgrims
42
for their victuals."

The Kings of England, and their subjects

of every class, loved to go on pilgrimage to this
sanctuary.

Heremytes on an heape with hoked staves

Wenten to Walsyngham:

so John Longland, in his Vision of

wrote
Plouhman, A.D. 1362. And many foreigners
Piers
came from abroad. In the Witten Bone, a pil
grimage from Ghent "Tons Vrauwe te Walsinghe,"
is put down at four livres.^

Henry is the first English King who

the Third
is recorded as a pilgrim to Walsingham. This
was in the twenty-sixth year of his reign
41
I248.
Edward the First was twice there. "

It was
that he did abide
"

says Walsingham,
known,"

under the protection of the God of heaven.

For once, while he was a young man. he chanced
to be playing at chess with a knight in a vaulted

chamber, when suddenly, and without any occa

sion, he rose, and went away ; when, lo an !

immense stone, which would have crushed him if

he had remained, fell on the very spot where he
had been sitting. On account of this miracle, he
very heartily honoured Our Blessed Ladye of
Walsingham, to whose favour he attributed his
45
escape from this danger."
In 1296, at Candle-
42 43
Annalcs Man. S. Albany vol. i.
p. 62. Rolls Edit. Cannaert. p. 354.
** 45
Man. Angl, vol. vi. p. 71. Hist. Anglicana, vol. i.
p. 9. Rolls Edit.
174 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladyc.

mas, he again went on pilgrimage to his Pro

tectress in dangers and adversity, Our Ladye of

Walsingham, where his procurators, Hugh le

Dispenser, and Walter de Beauchamp, steward

of his household, at his command, and in his
presence not being the usage for him anyways
(it
to swear in his own person) did swear en la

chapelle de Notre Dame a Walsingham, for him

and Kings of England, and in his name,
his heirs,

according to the power given them (which he

acknowledged) that they should perform and
all matters and
fulfil
things contained in the
instrument of alliance between him and the Earl
of Flanders. Nous qne de ttsage avoms, qui nous
en propre Persone ne jtirromy, reconissoms que le
dit Monsieur Hue et Monsieur Wautier nous
Procurers lour donans poer e mandement, 6-r.
et

par le tesmoign de cestes

presentes Lettres. Dated at
Walsingham, le jour de la Chandeleur, in the year
of grace, 1296, and of our reign the twenty-
46
fifth.

Edward the Second was a pilgrim to Wal

47
singham in 1315 ; and in 1332, Isabella of
France, whilst residing at Castle Rising, made
a pilgrimage to Walsingham; and in the muni
cipal records of Lynn there is an entry of 20^.
for bread sent to Isabella,
Queen Dowager, when
she came from Walsingham. 48
In 1361, Edward the Third went to
Walsing
ham ; 49 and in this year he granted out of his
treasury the sum of 9 1., as a gift, to John, Duke
of Brittany, for his expenses in
going on pil
50
grimage to Walsingham. In the same year he
also gave leave of absence from
London, for a
month, on account of his health, to his nephew,
the Duke of Anjou, to visit Our
Ladye of
Walsingham and St. Thomas of Canterbury. 51 And
three years later, Edward the Third sent
Letters,
dated the 2oth of February, to the Warders of
the Marches towards Scotland,
directing them to
46
Brady, vol. ii.
p. 44.
<?

Mon. Angl. vol. vi. p. 71.

48
Agnes Strickland, Life of Isabella, Queen of Edward the Second, p. 243.
49
Mon. Angl. vol. vi. p. 71. 50
Fcedera. Edit. 1740, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 40.
61
fbid, p, 43.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 175

give safe conduct to David de Bruys, King of

Scotland, who was to be accompanied by twenty
knights, then intending pilgrimage to Wal
singham.
52 Was he the King of Scotland to
whom Norden as being cured by the
alludes
Our Ladye of Muswell? 53
water of the well of
In 1427, on the morrow of Saints Gervase
and Protase, Queen Johanna, widow of Henry
the Fourth, visited St. Alban s, on her way
from Walsingham, Norwich, and St. Edmund s
Bury, to Langley, and was received in solemn
in white
procession by the monks, arrayed
54
copes.
2 8th
Writing from Oxnead, on Saturday, the
of 1443, to John Paston, Mrs.
September,
Margaret Paston says :

have behested to go on
"I pilgrimage to
55
Walsingham and to St. Leonard s for you; by
I had never so a season as I had
my troth, heavy
it from the time that I wist of your sickness, till

56
I wist of your amending."

Sometime in 14571458, the Duke of Norfolk

was on pilgrimage at Walsingham; for Sir John
Fastolfe, in a letter to John Paston, his cousin,
dated Caistor, the i8th of November, year not
given, but before 1459, says: "My
Lord of
Norfolk, is removed from Framlingham
on foot to
he would
go to Walsingham, and daily I wait that
57
come hither."

In 1469 Edward the Fourth and his Queen

were at
Walsingham. James Hawte, writing to
Sir John Paston on Whitsun Monday, the 22nd
"and as for the King, as
May, 1469, says: . . .

I understand, he departyt to Walsingham upon

Friday come seven-night, and the Queen also,
if

God send her hele." 58 Two years later, the Duke

of Norfolk was again on pilgrimage at Walsingham.
On the i3th or i4th of September, 1471, Sir John
Paston writes to Mrs. Margaret Paston, or her
son, Sir John Paston, in haste, and says: "I

52 53 See ante, p. 103.

Foedera, p. 86.
5i
Annales Mon. S. Albani, p. 16. Rolls Ed. B5
In Norwich. See ante, p. H2.
86
Paston Letters. Edit. Fenn, 1787, vol. iii. p. 21.
57 Ibid. vol. 68 Ibid. vol. ii,
i. p. 167. p. 17.
 1
76 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

heard yesterday that a Worsted 59 man of Norfolk

that sold worsteds at Winchester said that my
Lord of Norfolk and my Lady were on pilgrim
age at our Ladye on foot ;
and so they went to
Caistor."
60

In the same year William Ponte bequeaths

any of those who will pilgrimage for me to
"

to
Blessed Marye of Walsingham" vis. vinV. 61 And
in 1472 our Ladye of
Walsingham is one of the
sanctuaries to which William Ecopp, Rector of
Heslerton, desires that a pilgrim or pilgrims shall
be sent immediately after his burial, and to offer
there 62
iv^/.

1478 the Duke of Buckingham was on

In
63
pilgrimage at Walsingham.
On the insurrection of the nobles in favour
of Lambert Simnel, in 1487, Henry the Seventh
made a pilgrimage to our Ladye of Walsingham,
and there offering up his vows and prayers,
implored her assistance in delivering him from
his enemies. After the battle of Stoke, when
the rebels were overthrown, in gratitude for the
success which had attended his arms, that monarch
sent his banner to be offered at the shrine of our
Ladye of Walsingham, as a monument of the
victory which he had gained by her assistance. 64
The last royal pilgrims to our Ladye of Walsing
ham were Henry the Eighth and Queen Catherine.
In the Privy Purse expenses of Henry the
Eighth, 19 26 January, 1511, there is an entry
of an offering at our Ladye of Walsingham of
65
i/. 3>r. 4^. In all probability this offering was
made by the King in person, as he was then on
a visit to Sir Robert Cotton. 66 The King started
from East Barsham Hall 67 on his pilgrimage to
59 Worsted in
Norfolk, a town celebrated for the spinning of fine thread with
which the yarn called worsted is made.
w Paston Letters, vol. ii.
p. 37.
61
Test. Vet. p. 326.
M 1
See ante sub Gisbro," p. 42.
63
Paston Letters, 23 or 25 August, 1478.
64
Harpsfeld, ssec. xv. c. 18, p. 640. Cf. also Bacon, History
of Henry VII.
65
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. v. ii.
pt. ii. p. 1449.
86
Add. MSS. 7100
67
Norwich volume of the Royal Arch. Inst. Introd. f. ix.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 177

Walsingham, and Spelman says that he walked

barefoot,and offered a valuable necklace to our
Ladye.
After the victory of Flodden Field, Queen
Katherine went on pilgrimage to our Ladye of
Walsingham in fulfilment of her vow, and on the
1 6th September she announced her intention of
doing so to the King :

"... And with this I make an ende,

prayng God to send you home shortly, for
without this noo joye here can be accomplisshed \
and for the same I pray, and now goo to our
Ladye at Walsingham that I promised soo long

agoo to see.
08
At Woborne the day of Septembre.
xvj.
In her will Katherine of Aragon says :

"

I supplicate, &c.
Itm, that some personage go to our Ladye of
"

Walsingham in pilgrimage, and in going by the

69
way, dole xx. nobles.
Three years previously Erasmus had been to
Walsingham, and he describes his visit in the
colloquy entitled, Peregrinatio religionis ergo^ a
name it by no means deserves.
There was an old saying in regard of Philo
the Jew aut Philo Platonizat, aut Plato Philom zat,
:

and of Erasmus it has been said aut Erasmus :

Lutherizat, aut Luther Erasmizat."^ As a writer

he is well described as damnatus in plerisque,
suspedus in multis, caute legendus in omnibus^
It is notorious that Erasmus loved to exagge
rate the vices of his age, and to cast all possible
ridicule upon the practices of that Holy Faith,
of which, nevertheless, he was only too glad to
continue an unworthy member. His pen is never
more fruitful of sarcasm than when treating of
68
MS. Cott. Vesp. F. iii. f. 15.
69
Test. Vet. p. 37.
70
It is needless to give the references to the Peregrinatio religionis ergo, which
iscontained in his Colloquies. It gives an account of Walsingham, and of the shrine
of St. Thomas at Canterbury. The text which I have used is that of Vander Aa s
edition, 1703. Opp. t. i.
Walsingham extends from col. 774 to col. 783.
71 Edit,
Lyrreus, Trisagion Marianum, p. 437 also Weiss, Bib. Biograph.
;

1841, sub nom.

72
Vide Feller. Edit. 1848, sub nom.
M
178 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

ecclesiasticsand religious men. Did he judge

of them by himself? He has drawn his own
character with the hand of an artist. Ut ingenue,
quod verum est, fatear, says he, sum natura pro-
pensior ad jocos quam fortasse deceat, et lingua
liberioris quam nonnunquam expediat
Sir Thomas More discovered the venom latent
in Erasmus before they had been together an
hour. Christopher Cresacre More, third in descent
from Sir Thomas, our mutual great ancestor, writes
as follows :

all strangers Erasmus challenged vnto

But of
"

himself his love most especially, which had long

continued by mutuall letters expressing great
affection, and increased so much that he tooke
a iournie of purpose into England to see and
enioy his personall acquaintance and more intire
familiaritie ; at which time it is reported how that

he, who conducted him in his passage, procured

that Sir THOMAS MORE and he should first meete

togeather in London at the Lo: Mayor s table,

neither of them knowing each other. And in
the dinner time, they chanced to fall into argu

ment, Erasmus still endeauouring to defende the

worser parte ; but he was so sharpely sett vpon
and opposed by Sir THOMAS MORE, that per-
ceauing that he was now to argue with a readier
witt then euer he had before mett withall, he
broke forth into these wordes not without some
choler : Aut tu es Morns aut nullus ; wheTeto
Sir THOMASreadily replied Aut tu es Erasmus, :

aut diabolus; because at that time he was strangely

disguised, and had sought to defende impious
propositions ; for although he was a singular
Humanist, and one that could vtter his minde
in a most eloquent phrase, yet had he alwaies
a delight to scoffe at religious matters, and finde
fault with all sortes of clergie men. He tooke
a felicitie to sett out sundrie Commentaries vpon
the Father workes, censuring them at his plea
s

sure, for which cause he is tearmed Errans mus,

because he wandreth here and there in other
men s haruests; yea, in his writings he is sayd
73
Feller, who gives the reference lib. i.
ep. ii.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye, 179

to haue hatched manie of those eggs of heresie,

which the apostate fryar Luther had before layde ;
not that he is to be accounted an heretike, for he
would neuer be obstinate in anie of his opinions,
yet would he irreligiously glaunce at all antiquitie
and finde manie faultes with the present state
of the Church. When he was in England Sir
THOMAS MORE vsed him most courteously, doing
manie offices of a dear friend for him, as well
by his word as his purse; whereby he bound
Erasmus so straytely vnto him, that he euer
spoke and wrote vpon all occasions most highly
in his praise; but Sir THOMAS in successe of
time grew lesse affectionate vnto him, by reason
he saw him still fraught with much vanitie and
vnconstancie in respect of religion ; as when
Tindall obiecteth vnto Sir THOMAS that his

darling Erasmus had translated the word Church

into Congregation, and Priest into Elder, even as
himself had donne, SirTHOMAS answered thereto,
yf my darling Erasmus hath translated those places
with the like wicked intent that Tindall hath donne,
he shall be no more my darling, but the DivelCs
darling. Finally, long after, having found in
Erasmus s workes manie thinges necessarily to be
ameded, he counselled him as his friend in some
latter booke to imitate the
example of S. Augustin,
who did sett out a booke of Retractations, to
correct in his writing what he had vnaduisedly
written in the heat of youth; but he that was
from S. Augustin in humilitie, would
farre different
neuer follow his counsell ; and therefore he is
censured by the Church for a busie fellow manie :

of his bookes are condemned, and his opinions

accounted erroneous, though he alwaies lived a
Catholike Priest ;
and hath written most sharpely
against all those new Gospellers who then beganne
to appeare in the world ; and in a letter to John

Fabius, Bishopp of Vienna, he sayth that he

hateth these seditious opinions, with the which
day the world is miserably shaken ; neither
at this
doth he dissemble, saith he, being so addicted
to pietie, that if he incline to any parte of the
ballance, he will bende rather to superstition than
180 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

to impietie ; by which speach he seemeth in

doubtfull words to taxe the Church with super
stition and the new Apostolicall bretheren with
impietie.""
4
Such was the man who went on
pilgrimage religionis ergo to Walsingham.
In 1509 Erasmus came to reside at Cam
bridge. should be borne in mind, that every
It
one who was able made a pilgrimage in person
to our Ladye of Walsingham, and many sent
their yearly offerings ; indeed, Camden says that
those who were able and did not go thither
were considered as impious, and Erasmus men
tions the annual offerings. A pilgrimage, there
fore, to was the ri Kptvov the
Walsingham
correct thing ; and Erasmus was nothing loath ;
"
"

he, as a time-server, would do as others did.

They went in a spirit of devotion. He saw that
a visit to Walsingham would enable him to gratify
his inordinate pride, to perpetrate an unseemly

joke in the hallowed sanctuary itself of our Ladye,

and to make a display of his fancied superior
acquirements in letters, at the expense of many

distinguished University men and the excellent

Augustinian Canons of Walsingham, who bore

a very high reputation for culture. More
over, it would give him a character for piety
and a consequent better position at Cambridge.
Otherwise, one is at a loss to understand why
this ex-Augustinian Canon, who so much dis

approved of pilgrimages, or, as he endeavours

to explain it, the abuse of pilgrimages, should,
in accordance with a practice, which he lost no

opportunity of condemning, have gone himself

on a pilgrimage to Walsingham. No doubt
Erasmus felt that a pilgrimage, undertaken by
Erasmus, could under no circumstances be con
sidered as an abuse, but rather, that it ought to
be regarded as a model of what a pilgrimage
religionis ergo should be. To judge, however,
from his own description, it is about the greatest
abuse of a pilgrimage on record.

71
The Life and Death of Sir Thomas More. Written by M. T. M., s.l.v.a.,

pp. 109-113.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 181

Those who go on pilgrimage usually prepare

themselves by some extra act of piety, or mortifi
cation, and by approaching the Holy Sacraments
and receiving the blessing of Holy Church.
Erasmus did not do in like manner. He com
posed an ode, in Greek Iambics, to our Ladye,
in which there is more than one allusion to

himself, but no mention of, nor prayer for, the

success of the Church, which was the ostensible
motive of his visit to Walsingham. Having incu
bated these verses, he wished their appearance
tobe noised abroad, and so cackled accordingly.
The Times was as yet in the womb of time ; con

sequently, he could not advertise his movements,

or announce that, on such a day, Erasmus would

go to Walsingham for the purpose of hanging

up a Greek ode, so that his friends and the
public might attend to witness the performance;
but he did the next best thing, which was, to
write from Cambridge on the 8th of May, 1511,
to his Andrew Ammonio, 75 telling him
friend
"

that he has made a vow for the success of the

Church ; will go to see our Lady of Walsingham,
and hang up a votive Greek ode there and :

enjoins him, if he should go thither, to enquire

for Ego, mi Andrea, pro felici rerum eccle-
it."

siasticarnm statu voiiim snscepi. Jam scio reli-

gionem probas. Visam Virginem Walsagamicam,

atque illic Grcecum carmen votivum suspendam.
Id si
quando te illo contuleris, require.
Provided that the Greek ode was hung up,
and that some one of position, like Ammonio,
would enquire for it, and so draw attention to
it, the success
of the Church, might, for all that
Erasmus cared, have gone to the four winds.

75
Ammonio, born at Lucca, c. 1470, went to Rome, then came to England,
where Sir T. More was his protector. About 1513 he became Secretary of Latin
Letters to Henry VIII., whom he attended on his campaign in France, and celebrated
his victories in a Latin poem, which is lost. Leo X. named him Nuncio in England,
which office he fulfilled, still keeping his post of Latin Secretary, till his death
in 1517.

Opp. t. iii. pt. i. col. 106. ep. cxiv. In the Catalogue of Letters and Papers, &c.,
76

Henry VIII. vol. i. p. 244, where I first found this letter, the date given is the gth of
May, and the reference, Ep. Eras. vii. 1 7.
1 82 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

This is the ode, with its title ; and from what

Erasmus says, it is evident that the lines were
written together, and without a break. I reproduce
them strictly in accordance with his own words,
viz., in capitals or uncial letters. "The title,"
says
he, descriptns erat verbis ac literis Romanis, sed

majusciilis. Greed versus erant descripti Gracis

majusciilis, qu& prima videntur referre majus-
specie
culas Latinas. This was the pith of the joke.

DESIDERII ERASMI ROTERODAMI CARMEN

IAMBICVM EX VOTO DICATVM VIRGINI
WALSINGAMICAE APVD BRITANNOS
.

h XAIP IH2OT MHTEP ETAOrHMENH,

MONH TTNAIKHN 0EOTOKO2 KAI IIAP0ENO2.
AAAOI MEN AAAA2 SOI AIAOA2I AHPEA2,
O MEN TE XPT2ON, O AE IIAAIN TON APFTPON,
O AE TIMIOT2 XAPIZETAI AI0OT2.
<I>EPflN

AN0 ttN AHAITOT2 OI MEN TTIAINEIN AEMA2,

AAAOI AE HAOTTEIN, KAI TINE2 TTNAIKIOT
KTnNTO2 EPATON OTNOM EAHIZEIN HATPO2,
TITAIOr TINE2 TEPONTO2 AIHNA2 AAXEIN.
ATT02 A AOIAO2 ETMENH2, HENH2 r OMfl2,
2TIXOT2 ENEFKA2, OT TAP ESE2T AAAO TI,
AO2EH2 AMOIBHN ETTEAE2TATH2, TEPA2
MEFI2TON AITfl, 0EO2EBH THN KAPAIAN,
HASHN AUAS AMAPTIHN EAET0EPAN.
EYXH TOT EPA2MOT. 77

Hail !
Jesu s Virgin Mother ever blest !

Alone of Women Mother eke and Maid !

Others to thee their several offerings make :

This one brings gold, that silver, while a third
Bears to thy shrine his gift of costly gems
For these each craves his boon one strength of limb :

One wealth ; one, through his spouse s fruitfulness

The hope a father s pleasing name to bear :

One Nestor s eld would equal. I, poor bard,

Rich in goodwill, but poor in all beside,
Bring thee my verse nought have I else to bring
And beg, in quital of this worthless gift,
That greatest meed a heart that feareth God,
And free for aye from sin s foul tyranny
Erasmus his vow.

77
Opp. t. v. col. 1325.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 183

This svx,?! is characteristic of the writer. Neither

a Greek ode, nor a Latin ode, nor a Dutch ode
was required; a sincere devotion to our Blessed
Ladye would have suggested, that whatever he
wrote, should have been in the vernacular, for the
edification of the majority of the pilgrims ; and any
of his Cambridge friends would gladly have put
his words into elegant English for him. But no !

This would not have suited his purpose. His

ideas were not those of our Ladye s liegemen.
Erasmus wished it to be known that he, Erasmus,
the great Greek scholar, as he fancied himself,
from down among the Dutchmen, had been to
see Walsingham, and suspended a Greek ode
there.
Erasmus wrote much against the Catholic
practice of making rich offerings at the different
sanctuaries of our Ladye, and consequently in
his ode he says to her that "others present
valuable gifts, and expect favours fromin return

her, such as to attain the age of Nestor,"

a
curious petition to make in a prayer-" but that

he, a poor poet v^ns yoftus penniless and rich

in good will alone, can only offer her some

But, then, they were Greek lines, and

verses."

by Erasmus and therefore, in his own estimation,

!

priceless beyond gold and silver and precious

stones. I imagine that, in tw^c, y fy*, there is

an allusion to his hackneyed grievance about the

vigilance of the English custom-house officers.
By the laws of the realm, no one was allowed
to carry out of the kingdom more than six angels
in coin; all above that sum was seized; and
consequently, as he was leaving Dover, in 1499,
after his first visit to England, the officers took
from him all the money he possessed beyond
that amount, 2O/. more or less. It is gratifying

to learn from him that our custom-house officers

were so vigilant, and, that as loyal Englishmen,
they did their duty with their usual impartiality,
even although Erasmus was the victim, and
heedless of the risk they ran of being denounced
by him to posterity in a Greek ode.
Erasmus gives, also, the prayer which he
184 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

recited in the sanctuary of our Ladye, and which

bears the marks of having been carefully prepared
for the occasion. Pilgrims, as a rule, do not
publish the prayers which they make at various
sanctuaries.
alone of all women, Mother and Virgin,
"O

Mother most happy, Virgin most pure, now we,

impure as we are, come to see thee (visimus) who
art all pure; we salute thee; we worship thee as how
we may with our humble offerings ; may thy Son
grant us, that, imitating thy most holy manners, we
also,by the grace of the Holy Ghost, may deserve
to conceive the Lord Jesus in our
spiritually
inmost soul (intimis animi visceribus\ and once
conceived, never to lose Him. Amen."

In the colloquy Erasmus says he made two

journeys to Walsingham, which seems very impro
bable; and there is a strong presumption that
what he relates of the second visit is the fruit of
his own imagination. The colloquy is divided
into two parts, dinner intervening.
A
good morning s work had now been done ;
the hammer and
nails and ladder had been pro

cured, the Greek ode hung up, and the prayer to

our Ladye repeated. Erasmus, exhausted with
acting the part of a pilgrim religionis ergo, and
with his labours, went off to dinner, doubtless at
the principal hostelry, for although audax omnia
perpeti, he would scarcely have had the impudence
to intrude himself upon the hospitality of the
Canons former brethren, when he had secretly
his

resolved, in his mind, to make them the subject

of his own coarse sarcasm. It is to be hoped that
the landlord had not degenerated from the repu
tation which his predecessors enjoyed
during the
previous century, as John Amundesham has re
lated and; that he received the conceited Dutch
man as an illustrious stranger, and fashioned his
little bill accordingly.
What follows, Erasmus professes to relate as
having occurred on his second visit to Walsing
ham. After dinner he returned to the priory-
church ; the ostensible motive was to enquire for
the history of an object which, he says, was shown
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 185

there as a relic of our Blessed Ladye s milk.

After indulging in his usual language, he casually
remarks that he was just about to leave the
church, when "up
come some of the mystagogi
who cast side looks at us, point at us with their

fingers, run up to us, retire, come back again, nod

to us, and seem as if they would like to say How
d ye do? to us, if they had the courage." Erasmus,
according to his own account, was pleasant, and
looked benignantly on them and smiled soberly,
of course ; he had enjoyed his little dinner, and
was not suffering from a surfeit of Norfolk pippins.
He was in a high good humour. At length one "

comes up and asks me my name. I give it. Am I,

then, he, who two years previously had nailed up
a votive inscription written in Hebrew? The
very man, said thus telling a I," lie, of which he
convicts himself in the next lines. "

Do you,
then, write Hebrew?" enquires Menedemus. "Oh,

dear, no !
"

replies Ogygius, i.e. Erasmus,

"

but
these muffs call everything Hebrew which they
79
don t understand."

Presently the Sub-Prior appears; and, like a

true English gentleman, he courteously greets the
visitor to Walsingham.
"

He told me," says the

vulgar Dutchman, "how many persons have
laboriously exerted themselves, quantopere sudatum
est a multis, to read those verses; how many

spectacles had been wiped to no purpose. When

ever any aged doctor in theology or in the law
had arrived, he was taken to the tablet; one said
the letters were Arabic, another that they were
no letters at all ; finally one was found who could
read the title ! This was written in Roman words
and letters, but in uncials. The verses were

Mystagogus is employed by Cicero, and

78 I
give the word which Erasmus uses.
means one who shows the rarities of a temple to strangers. I am unable to say
whether the Mystagogi of Walsingham were lay-brothers of the Priory, or externs,
corresponding to the modern vergers. Erasmus says that the Canons themselves did
not act as showmen, perhaps, in reality to let it be inferred that he was considered a
person of consequence since the Sub-Prior came to him.
79 Sed isti
quidqiiid non intelligimt Hebraicrim vacant. As the word "muff" is

now given in Bellow most excellent Bona-fide Pocket Dictionary of the French and
s

English Latigiiages (London Triibner & Co.), I presume its use is so far warranted
:

as to be placed in the mouth of Erasmus.

1 86 Old English Devotion to ottr Blessed Ladye.

written in Greek uncials, which, at first sight,

appear to resemble Roman ones. On being

requested, I gave the meaning of the verses in

Latin, construing them word for word."

This the key to the real purport of the

is

carmen votivum, and the main, if not the sole,

motive of his visit to Walsingham, under the
cloak of a pilgrim religionis ergo. As Achilles
said to Ulysses

i%dpb$ yap /AOI x/i*o oftu; Aidao TuXjjff/i ,

80
o$ % erspov psv xi\jdtt svi (ppttiiv,
aXXo ds
/3a^s/.

It was intended as a display of his fancied

superior learning, and Walsingham was selected
as being the most frequented spot in all England,
as indeed Erasmus mentions, and often visited by

foreign pilgrims. On this hitherto unchallenged

evidence of his, many writers have not hesitated
to hold up the worthy Augustinian Canons of
Walsingham to scorn for their excessive ignorance,
and to base upon it a wholesale conclusion that
the other religious houses of England were in no
better condition ;
a conclusion which it is impos
sible to draw from what Erasmus has written. I
will admit that Greek was not so generally taught
then as it now is; but no one will venture to
affirm that Greek was absolutely unknown at Oxford
and at Cambridge. Therefore, what amount of
belief is to be given to Erasmus s sweeping charge

against the aged doctors in theology and in the

law, many of whom were University men ? for the
charge is quite as heavy against them as against
the Canons of Walsingham. Certain it is that the
Augustinians understood Latin, if the evidence of
Erasmus is received, for he says On being :
"

requested, I gave the meaning of the verses in

Latin, construing them word for word." But it

may be suggested that young Robert Aldrich was

at hand, and may have acted as interpreter of the
Latin. Possibly; but all that Erasmus says of
his capabilities is, that he was well skilled in

German. Another most essential point has been

overlooked, because the real bearing of the
80
Iliad, ix, 312, 313.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 187

Roman uncial letters is not understood. At the

time when Erasmus hung up ode, Roman
his
letters were scarcely, if at all, known in England.
They would have been a novelty at Walsingham,
as elsewhere, for all the printing in the land was in
black letter, and therefore it would be no proof of
ignorance to be unacquainted with Roman uncials.
Not very long ago, in the sale of Mr. Bragge s
splendid collection of illuminated manuscripts, a
breviary which had belonged to the last Prior of,
Walsingham, Richard Vowell, and contained a fair
amount of pretty flower pattern, was sold for
i26/. The ode of Erasmus would not have
fetched as many farthings. In all likelihood this
breviary had been written and illuminated in the
scriptorium of the Priory. Yet there are now
many educated men who would be utterly unable
to read one line of it, and to whom a column of
black letter, printed with contractions, would be
so much It would be very unfair for
"

Hebrew."

palseographists and antiquaries to charge them

with ignorance on that account ; nevertheless, this
is the reasoning of Erasmus. And this being said,
I gladly take leave of Erasmus and of Erasmus
his ode.
The following letter from the Lord High
Admiral of England to his sovereign would have
rather astonished my Lords of the Admiralty of
the present day. A
captain of the fleet, being in
great danger of losing his ship, invoked our Ladye
of Walsingham, and made a vow, if she would
preserve him, never to eat flesh nor fish until he
had been on pilgrimage to her. The Lord High
Admiral gives him leave of absence to fulfil his
vow; and this is the letter from Sir Edward
Howard to his sovereign, dated April 17, 1513 :

(I have) taken all Master Arthur s folks

"

Sir,
and bestowe them in the arme, wher (I am
deficient by) reson of deth, by casualte and other-
ways. And, Sir, (I have given him liber)te to go
hoome ; for, Sir, when he was in extreme danger
. . . from hym he upon Our Ladye of
called

Walsingham for help and com(fort, and made) a

vow that, an it pleased God and her to deliver
1 88 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

him out of the pe(ril, he wde vol)ner eet fleshe

nor fyche tyl he had seen heer. Sir, I a(ssure
you) he was in mervelous danger, for it was
merveil that the shipp bey(ng with) al her sayls
strikyns full but a rok with her starn that she
br(ake) not in peces at the furst stroke." And
adds, his absence will be a great loss to them.
Recommends him highly to the King. Hopes he
will give him comfortable words for his bravery. 81
The pilgrimage to Walsingham which I
last
shall notice is that of Cardinal Wolsey, in August,

1517. Writing in that month to Henry the Eighth

he says that he is anxious to see his Grace and
know of his good estate, but has been so vexed
with the sweat, he dare not yet come to his
presence. Proposes to start for Walsingham on
Monday next, and from thence to Our Ladye of
Grace, in fulfilment of his vow, which may correct
the weakness of his stomach. 82
On the 3oth of August the Venetian Ambas
sador, Sebastian Giustiniani, writes to the Council
of Ten saying that he had sent his secretary to
Wolsey several times for an audience: could never
get one so at last, as Wolsey is going on a
:

pilgrimage to fulfil a vow at a shrine some hundred

miles hence, resolved at any rate to speak to him.
Found him with a troubled countenance and bent
brow. Told him of the Turkish news, which he
said he had heard already. Perceiving that he
said nothing at all to me on this or any other
topic, I then offered to accompany his right
reverend lordship on his journey with an honour
able train, at my own cost ; but without appearing
flattered even by this proposal, he said he had no
need of any additional company beyond his own
retinue, which was both honourable and numerous.
He has been ill of late and really his appearance,
;

in addition to his mental perturbation, indicates

this, although the profuse perspiration endured by

him has not 83
quite carried off his wrath.
81
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. i. n. 3903, p. 538. MS. Cott.

Calig. E ii. 141.

88
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. ii.
p. 1538, n. 38, Appendix.
83
Ibid. p. 1154.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 189

Thirteen days later i.e., September 12

Guistiniani writes to the Doge that a French
ambassador has arrived from the Emperor, a man
of no account, apparently only to borrow money.
He has not yet had an audience of the King, who
keeps aloof at Windsor to avoid the sickness, or of
Wolsey, who has gone to Walsingham. 84
On his from his pilgrimage, Wolsey
return
writes to Sir R. Wingfield, saying he has been so
vexed with fever since his return from Wal
singham, that he has been obliged to detain
Wingfeld s servant Bysshop, &c. This letter has
no date. 85
A document in the Public Record Office
contains a declaration of the expenses of the
household of Thomas, Cardinal of York, for three
years, ending December 4, tenth Henry the
Eighth. The expenses for the ninth year, in

cluding the journey to Walsingham, come to

2,6l6/. $S.

Offerings, bequests, &<:.,

to Our Ladye of
Walsingham.
be regretted that the
It is greatly to Annals "

of the
chapel of
Walsingham," from which
Capgrave quotes, have perished. They appear to
have been a register of the principal offerings and
donations to our Ladye. Roger Ascham, who
visited Cologne in 1550, makes this observation:
"The three Kings be not so rich, I believe, as

was the Ladye of Walsingham. Erasmus speaks

of the votive statues of gold, and of silver gilt,
which were shown to him ; and says that a day
would not suffice to describe the world of admirable
things which he saw there, and which were kept
under the altar of our Ladye, from whence they
87
were brought out for him to Consequently, see."

some idea may be formed of the riches of the

sanctuary of Our Ladye of Walsingham.

By an entry in the Wardrobe book of the
28th of Edward the First, it appears that
84
Ibid. p. 1 1 60, n. 3675.
85 Ibid. 86
1540, n. 40, Appendix.
p. Ibid. p. 1412, n. 4623.
87
Depromit (mystagogxis) ex ifso altari munditm rerum admirabilium.
igo Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the King was to make a yearly

accustomed
offering to our the isth of May of
Ladye : "On

this year, i.e. 1300, he offered to the image of our

Ladye in the chapel of Walsingham a clasp of

gold of the value of eight marcs; and on the
same day the Queen offered to our Ladye, by the
hands of John de But, a clasp of the value of six
and a half marcs." 88
Of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who died at
Leicester, on the i3th of May, 1361, Capgrave
says :

"

In the annals of the chapel at Walsingham

it is mentioned that this Henry gave to our
Blessed Ladye a vase with handles, 89 on which he
expended almost four hundred marcs. In the
same annals it is also written that the father of
thisHenry, who was Earl of Lancaster, and not
Duke, offered to our Ladye an Angelical Salu
tation with precious stones salutationem angelicam
aim lapidibus pretiosis the value of which several
90
persons esteemed at four hundred marcs."
Thisis one of the
many instances of the
difficulty which the archaeologist has to determine
what is to be understood by Salutatio Angelica.
It has been suggested that this offering consisted
of a valuable pair of beads; but I have never
found any instance of a pair of beads being
described by Salutatio Angelica; moreover, it is
cum lapidibus, and not de lapidibus. Hence it is
most probable that this was a tablet with a repre
sentation of the Annunciation, and adorned with

precious stones. Six years in

later, 1367,
Sir Thomas de Uvedale left the chapel of
to
Our Ladye of Walsingham a tablet of silver, gilt,
with the Salutation of the Blessed Virgin, together
with a painted image. 91
Sums of money for offerings and candles are
frequently recorded.
Thus in the accounts of Elizabeth of York :

88
Lib. Garderobse, p. 334.
89
The manuscripts differ here : one has urnam illam cum libis ; another, urnant
illam cum aliis.
00
De illustr. Henricis, p. 164. Rolls Edit.
01
Surrey Archaol. Colled, vol. iii, p. 151,
 Old English Devotion to otir Blessed Ladye. 191

"March 26, 1502 :

"

Offering to Our Ladye of Walsingham,

vis. viii//."
92

In many cases these were not casual, but

annual, offerings ; and frequently made more than
year. Thus in the Northumberland
once during the
Household Book of 1512 :

Item. My Lorde usith to send afor Michael

"

mas for his Lordschips offerynge to Our Lady of

93
Walsyngeham iiij
d"

Item. My Lorde usith and accustumyth to

"

send yerely for the Upholdynge of the Light of

Wax which his Lordschip fyndith birnynge yerly
befor Our Lady of Walsyngham, contenynge
xi. Ib. of Wax in it after vii. ob. for the fyndynge
of every Ib. redy wrought. By a Covenaunt maid
with the Channon by great for the hole yere for
the fyndinge of the said Light byrnning,
vis. viuV."
94

The Earl also remunerated the services of the

canon for keeping his light burning during service
time throughout the year.
Item. My Lord usith and accustomith to
"

syende yerely to the Channon that kepith the

Light before Our Ladye of Walsingham for his
reward for the hole yere for kepynge of the said
Light, Lightynge of it at all service-tymes daily
throwout the yere, xnV." 05
In the accounts of the Duke of Buckingham
on the 1 8th of May, 1519, the following entry
occurs :

"

To Russell, for my offering to Our Ladye of

96
Walsingham, 6.r. 8^."

Another contemplated offering to Our Ladye

of Walsingham is now recorded, unique of its
kind, and which was even more curious than the
donation to Our Ladye of Loreto made by a
a king I think of Saxony and which I saw
displayed in one of the cases in the Treasury of
Loreto, when I was on pilgrimage there in 1857,
in the suite of the Sovereign Pontiff Pius the
92 93 Ibid.
Surrey Archaol. Collect, vol. iii. p. 3. p. 337.
04 95 Ibid.
Ibid. p. 338. p. 342.
86
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. iii. pt. I, p. 499, no. 1285.
192 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Ninth. Itof his Majesty s wedding

consisted
and nether garments.
suit, coat, vest,
On the 1 5th of May, 1515, Sir R. Wingfeld,
English Ambassador to the Emperor, writes to
Henry the Eighth for some place, the name of
which is decayed in the original, and describes a
great dance of fresh and fair bourgeoises maydens
ordered by the Emperor to be held at ...
(Malines?) on Sunday the i3th of May, at which
the ambassadors were also present, excepting the
Pope s nuncio.
"

Some of the women," says he, were mar "

vellous fair, well fed, and clean washen, in such

wise that, an I were young as my beard is white,
your Grace might think by the manner of my
writing that the sight of them touched me nearer
than it did, and the rather because I deem that
fair bodies, gentlewomen and others, take but
small pleasure to see white hairs, which I have
gotten in the cold snowy mountains, which have
the power to make all hares and partridges that
abide amongst them white, where my beard
I have promised to bear to Our
(which Ladye of
Walsingham, an God give me life) is wax so white,
that whilst I shall wear it I need none other mean
to cause women rejoice little in my company."
97

Two years later Sir Robert writes to the King

for permission to resign his functions in order
that he might go to Walsingham to make an
offering of his beard to our Ladye. The letter is
dated Malines, May 3, 1517. In it Sir Robert
says, that on the 1 6th of this month he will have
served seven years as ambassador to the Emperor,
having the pilgrim s fortune to change many
lodgings,and find few friends. Begs the King
willhave his poverty in remembrance, and give
him licence to lay down his office, that he may
visit Our Ladye of Walsingham, "

where by the
leave of God would gladly leave my
I beard,
which is now of so strange a color that need I
none other arms or herald to show what favour I

97
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. ii. pt. I, p. 130, n. 463. Vitellius,
B. xviii. 150.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 193

am worthy, or am like to have from henceforth

98
amongst ladies and gentlewomen."
Whether Sir R. Wingfeld ever carried his
wish into execution I know not. He appears to
have returned to England shortly after the date of
this last letter.
In the Privy Expenses of Henry the Eighth
an entry occurs on the i/j-th of May, 1532 :

Paied to Maister Garneys for the King s

"

99
offering to Oure Ladye of Walsingham, viij. vi</."

This is the last offering which I have found of

Henry the Eighth.
Many bequests are contained in the wills of
our forefathers.
In 1347, John, eighth and last Earl of Surrey,
by dated June 24, devised to the chapel
his will
of Our Ladye of Walsingham a jewel which he
describes as his family eagle, and the rings
100
arranged in the form of a constellation about it;
at least, so I read the bequest Mon Egle dfz :

saune amis qe sount my s par constellation"

les

In 1381, William de Ufford, Earl of Sussex,

says in his will :

I will that a picture of a horse

"

and a man,
armed with my arms, be made in silver, and
offered to the altar of Our Ladye of Walsing
102
ham." This "picture" was evidently an
image.
Isabel, Countess of Warwick, in her will dated
December 1439, says i, :

I will that my tablet, with the image of our

"

103
Ladye having a glass for it, be offered unto our

Ladye of Walsingham ;
as also my gown of green

alyz gold with wide sleeves ; and a

cloth of
tabernacle of silver, like in the timber to that over

88 Letters and Papers, &c. p. 1029, n. 3199. Galba B. v. 203.

89 Ibid.
p. 214.
100
Test. Ebor. vol. i.
p. 41.
101
I suspect that is intended for saunc, which is also given sannch, saiotg,
saune
saitnk, and explained as signifying sang, parente, lignte, race, &c. See the Glossaire
de la Langue Romane. By J. B. Roquefort. Paris, 1808.
102
Test. Vet. p. 115.
103
Afore, before.
N
194 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

our Ladye of Caversham." 104 She had made a

valuable bequest to Our Ladye of Caversham. 105
In 1453, John, Lord Scrope of Masham, by
his testament dated March 18, wills: "Yat ye
house of Walsingham have x. marcs for forgeten
avowes and beheestes by me made to our Ladye
10G
yer."

In 1474, Dame Elizabeth Andrews wills that

one of her two rings with the diamonds should be
sent to our Ladye of Walsingham. 107

Antony Widvile, Earl Rivers, whose will, dated

June 23, evinces great devotion to our Ladye,
says in it :

108
"My trapper of blakk of gold I geve to
109
Our Ladye of Walsingham."
Henry the Seventh offered a figure of himself,
kneeling, made of silver and gilt, to Our Ladye
of Walsingham, 110 to whom on the 25th of Feb
ruary, 1505-6, Katherine, widow of Sir John
111
Hastings, bequeathed her velvet gown.
Pilgrims to Walsingham generally made an
offering or donation of a small piece of
money at the shrine of our Ladye, a practice
which up the choler of Erasmus, who, never
stirred

theless, took care to record that he, too, made his

offering of a few pence.
In the chapel of our Lady was a chauntry
priest for the souls of King Edward the First
and King Edward the Second, and of Sir John
Ovidale, Knight; and an annual distribution of
i2s. 6d. to twenty-five poor persons in Bedingham
for their souls. There was another chaplain to
pray for the souls of John Marshall and Alice his
wife. The stipends of these priests were $/.6s.8d.
each in 1534.
In the King s book of payments, i loth
Henry the Eighth, there is an entry on the ist of

July for
"

William Halys, King s priest, singing before

104
Test. Vet. p. 240.
105 10G 107
See ante, p. 10. Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 192. Test. Vet. p. 329.
108 109
This would seem to be a misprint for cloth. Bentley, Exerpt. Hist. p. 248.
110
See his will, in full by Thomas Astle, F.R.S. &c. London, 1775.
printed
111
Test. Vet. p. 329.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 195

Our Ladye at Walsingham, half a year s wages

Same for the King s candle there, 46 s.

Again in
November, 1515 :

Sir Richard Warde, singing before our Ladye

at Walsingham, half a year s wages, IOQJ-.
The King s candle, 46 s. 8^. 113
Hence it would appear that the King kept a
candle constantly burning at Walsingham.
Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, K.G., and one of
the original knights of the order, who died on the
5th of April, 1369, by his will dated on the
previous day, desired to be buried in our Ladye s

chapel.
"

I desire," says he,

"

my body to be
buried in the chapel at Walsingham before the
image of the Blessed Virgin, and thither to be
carried with all speed, having one taper at the

head, and another at the feet, where it rests the

first night. And also I will that a dirige shall be
there said,and in the morning a Mass, whereat a
noble shall be offered for my soul that two :

torches be carried along, one on one side and the

other on the other side, which are to be lighted at
passing through every town, and then given to
114
that church wherein it shall rest at night."

Erasmus mentions an object which he says

was shown at Walsingham as a relic of the Milk
of our Blessed Ladye, but most of his comments
are too impious to quote. It was enclosed in

crystal, and stood on the right side of the high

altar of the Priory church, and he describes it as
"dried up, looking like pulverized chalk mixed

with the white of an egg

"

concretion est : dicas

cretam tritam, alboqtie ovi temperatum. On the
occasion of his visit it was brought down from
the altar by one of the canons to Erasmus, who,
kneeling, recited the following prayer, which he
mentions that he had already prepared before
hand :

111
Letters and Papers, &c. Henry VIII. vol. ii.
pt. II, p. 1442.
1JS
Ibid. pt. II, p. 1469.
114
Test. Vet. p. 77 ;
also Dugdale, Baronage, vol. ii.
p. 36.
196 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

"

O Virgin Mother, who with thy maiden

breasts has deserved to give milk to the Lord of
heaven and earth, thy Son Jesus; we wish that
being purified by His Blood, we also may advance
to that happy infancy of dovelike simplicity, which

knowing nought of malice, fraud, or deceit,

eagerly desires the milk of the precepts of the

Gospel, until it attains the perfect man, to the
stature of the fulness of Christ, Whose happy

company thou enjoyest for ever, with the Father

and the Holy Ghost. Amen."

After his dinner, as I have already said, he

revisited the church, his avowed object being to
examine the history or authentication of this relic.

Young Aldrich was with him ;

a circumstance
which is adverse to his alleged second visit, for
it does not appear that Aldrich accompanied
Erasmus on what he describes as his first visit to
Walsingham, since he speaks of meeting the
young Cantab on that occasion as if by chance.
Dinner over," says Erasmus,
"

we returned "

to the church, ... an eagerness to see the tablet"

i.e., the history of the relic which the "to

mystagogus had referred me attracted me. After

some considerable search we found it, but fixed so
high that not every one s eyes could read it.
Mine eyes are such that I cannot be called lynx-
eyed, nor altogether dim-sighted. Wherefore,
whilst Aldrich read it, I casually followed him
with my eyes, not sufficiently trusting him in a
matter of such weight."

This is, in a few words, the history which

Erasmus relates as purporting to be contained in
the tablet :

"

One William, born in Paris, had a great love

of collecting relics ;
and after visiting many
churches and monasteries and countries in quest
of them, he at last arrived at Constantinople,
where his brother was bishop hujus Gulielmi
fratcr illic tune agebat efiiscopum. Being about to
return home, his brother told him of a certain

virgin consecrated to God who possessed some of

the milk of our Blessed Ladye, and he succeeded
in obtaining half of what she had. On his journey
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 197

homewards, he was taken ill, and feeling his end

approaching, he summoned his most intimate
companion of his travels, a Frenchman, and told
him convey the relic to the altar of our Ladye
to
in the Church of Notre Dame in Paris. Shortly
afterwards the friend was seized with a mortal
illness, and confided the relic to an English
comrade, desiring him to fulfil the commission
which he himself had been unable to execute.
The Englishman did as he was requested, and
delivered the relic to the canons of Notre Dame
in Paris, from whom
he obtained the half of it,
which he brought to England, and finally con
veyed to Walsingham, being, as Erasmus adds,
called thither by the inspiration of the Holy
"

Ghost.
Says Menedemus :
"

Certainly this account is

charmingly consistent." Ogygius, i.e., Erasmus :

"Yes; lest any doubt might remain, there were

appended to it the names of the suffragan bishops,
who to those who visit this milk, and make some
little offering, grant as much pardon as their
faculties of. Another proof of pious
admit
sincerity was added the milk of the Blessed ;

Virgin which was shown in many places was

sufficiently to be venerated, but this relic was far
more venerable than the others, because whilst
they had been scraped from stones, this one had
flowed from the very breasts of our Ladye."

Menedemus :
"

How is this proved?"

Oh, the maiden of Constantinople,

"

Ogygius :

who had given the milk, mentioned it."

Menedemus And she, perhaps, had been :

"

informed by St. Bernard!"

Ogygius :
"

Most probably."
Menedemus :
"

Whose good fortune it was to

taste themilk from the same breast which was
sucked by the Infant Jesus. But how can . . .

that be called the milk of the Blessed Virgin

which did not flow from her breasts?"
"

Ogygius flowed as the other did, but

:
"

It

being received by a stone on which she chanced to sit,

it dried up, and then, by the will of God, it was

thus multiplied"
 198 Old English Devotion to o^tr Blessed Ladye.

MenedemusExactly :
"

so."

Now
here Erasmus contradicts the statement
which he has just previously made viz., "that
the other relics of the milk had been
scraped
from stones, but that this one flowed from the
very breast of our Ladye ;
"

yet here he says that

this one fell on a stone as well." how
Stripped,
ever, of specious and Erasmian clothing, the
its

real nature of the relic is

quite apparent from
what Erasmus says in the person of Ogygius. It
is most improbable that the tale, which Erasmus
relates, was ever written on the tablet on the wall
at Walsingham; and the historical assertions are
utterly incorrect.
1. The maiden of Constantinople heard the
history of the relic from St. Bernard. He lived
from A.D. 1091 to 1159, and was never at Con
stantinople. Anyhow this gives a date.
2. William was a
Frenchman. Paris was
his birthplace, and he was on his way homewards
to Paris when he died. The date of his death is
not recorded; but as he received the relic from
the maiden of Constantinople who had seen
St. Bernard, it must, at the have occurred
latest,
before A.D. 1200.
Now the brother of William, equally a French
man, was Bishop i.e., Patriarch of Constanti
nople but the Patriarchs of Constantinople were
;

all Greeks. Consequently the brother of William

is a myth, and therefore William himself and the
maiden of Constantinople are nowhere. The
Latin Patriarchs of Constantinople com
only
menced and they were six in
in the year 1204;

number, and not one of them was a Frenchman 1

(i) Thomas Morosini, a Venetian; (2) 1215,
Gervase, also called Eberard, a Tuscan; (3) 1221,
Matthew, Bishop of Jessol, in the Duchy of
Venice; (4) 1227, Simon, Archbishop of Tyre,
hcse nationality is unknown 115 ;
v>

(5) 1234,

115
Ada
SS. t. i. Aug. pp. 150, 151, nn. 906, 907. Le Quien, Oriens Christianus,
vol. iii. col.
805. I have only examined the list of the Greek Patriarchs from
Sergius
the Second, A.D. 999, to John the Twelfth, A.D. 1294. Art de verifier Its Dates,
vol. i.
pp. 290314; and Le Quien, t. i. coll. 257291.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 199

Nicholas of Piacenza, Bishop of Spoleto; and

(6) 1253, Pantaleo Giustiniani, a Venetian,
who
returned to Italy after the taking of Constantinople
by the Greeks in i26i. no

Moreover, in the lists of the relics belonging

to the Church of Notre Dame which are given in
the Chartulary, no mention is made of the rnilk
of our Ladye. 117 But Ferreol Locri says that there
was a relic of our Ladye s milk both in the
cathedral and in the royal chapel. 118
The allusion of St. Bernard refers to an old
legend, that on one occasion our Blessed Ladye,
with her Divine Son in her arms, appeared to him,
and fed him with some drops of her milk. I have
several engravings of the seventeenth century
which represent the apparition. The Bollandists
discuss the various accounts of and the opinions
it,

given by different writers, and sum up in favour

of those who treat it as a legend. 119
The relic at Walsingham must have been
brought from the East, possibly from Constanti
nople, by some English pilgrim.
Robert Du Mont, describing the battle of
Ascalon, in the year 1124, and the advance of the
little Christian army, says that the princes marched
at the head, the patriarch bore the Cross of
Christ 120 as a standard, Pontius, Abbot of Cluny,
carried the Lance which had pierced the side of
of our Lord, and the Bishop of Bethlehem bore
121
the milk of the Blessed Virgin Marye in a pyx.
And in the year 1248, St. Louis of France sent to

116
Art de verifier les Dates. Paris, 1783, vol. i.
p. 308, et seq.
117
Cartulaire de V Eglise Notre Dame de Paris. Edit. Guerard. Paris, 1850,
vol. 375 ; vol. iv. pp. 39, lio, 125, 126, 203, 207, 208.
iii. p.
1J8
Maria Augusta. Arras, 1608, p. 525.
119 Ada SS. t. iv.
Aug. pp. 206, 208.
120
After the death of Heraclius in 636, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was
burnt by the infidels, and the faithful determined to divide the Holy Cross into
nineteen portions, which were distributed thus -Constantinople received three, the
:

island of Cyprus two, Crete one, Antioch three, Edessa one, Alexandria one, Ascalon
one, Damascus one, Jerusalem four, and two were distributed in Georgia (Memoire
sur les Instruments de la Passion de N. S. J. C. par Ch. Rohault de Fleury. Paris,
1870, p. 56).
121 Bib. dcs Croisades, pt.
Continuation de la Chronique de Sigisbert. iii. p. 92.
Also Baronius, ad ann. 1124, t. xii. p. 158. Antw. 1609.
2OO Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

the Chapter of Toledo, by the hands, and at the

request of the Archbishop of that city, some

precious particles of the relics which he had
received from the imperial treasury at Constanti
nople viz., of the wood of the Cross of our Lord,
of the milk of the glorious Virgin Marye, &c.
Mariana gives the letter of St. Louis to the
Chapter of Toledo ;
it is dated Estampes, in the
month of May of the year above named. 122
Guibert, who was Abbot of Saint Marye of
Nogent-sur-Seine for twenty years, and died A.D.
1124, mentions that some of our Ladye s milk
was preserved in a dove made of crystal at Laon ;

but he maintains that our Ladye never forced any

of her milk from her breast to be kept for future
veneration, since that would have been quite
inconsistent with her humility.
123
Achery, who D
published the works of Guibert in 1651, com
menting on this passage, says he hears and reads
that other relics of our Ladye s milk are venerated
in France and elsewhere; and therefore he is in
124
perplexity of mind which side to take. The Bol-
landists noticed the perplexity of Achery, and D
Father Cuperus admits that he is similarly per
plexed, because if he adopts the opinion of
Guibert, he is at variance with Italians, Spaniards,
125
French, and Belgians, who in different churches
claim this as one of their most precious relics.
He then refers to the letter of St. Louis given by
Mariana, and remarks :

u If I at once believe evidences of this

kind,
so remote from the days of our Ladye, I shall
appear over credulous to severe critics of history,
and as multiplying continual miracles without

necessity. But had rather appear over credulous

I

than over censorious. Although I dare not pass

a certain judgment as to the veracity of such like

111
De rebus Hispania. Mogunt, 1619, lib. xiii. c. viii. p. 554.
123
De pignoribus Sanctontm, lib. iii. c. iii, 3, inter opp. Guiberti, Patrol. Lat.
t. clvi, col. 659. Edit. Migne.
124
Ibid. col. 1044.
125 Maria Augusta, pp. 524, 525 also Morlot, Metropolis Remensis
Cf. Locri, ;

Historia, t. ii.; Remis, 1679, pp. 474, 475, for a relic ofour Ladye s milk sent by
Pope Adrian, c. 1276.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 201

relics, stillI am far away, and I wish to be far

away, from the impious Calvin and the supercilious

Erasmus of Rotterdam, who wantonly reject the
tradition of all those churches ; and whom, on
that account, John Ferrand of our Society de
servedly censures in his dissertation on Relics.
Indeed, I freely admit with Ferrand, that Almighty
God could have preserved that milk from corrup
tion for so many centuries, but I am anxious to
learn from evidence, most ancient and trustworthy,
whether He
ever really did so, and wished this
continual miracle to exist in so many places. For
it is necessary that this evidence should be pro

portioned to the prodigy, so that undoubted

historical faith may be given to it. Therefore I form
no positive opinion on the truth of this matter;
and here I derive great satisfaction from the
opinion of Pope Innocent the Third A.D. 1198
1216, who, speaking of certain relics of our
Lord, concludes as follows : . . .
Nevertheless,
it is better to commit all to God rather than to
define anything rashly. This opinion of the
Pope, which I have given in capital letters, I
desire to apply to the present subject. In the
meantime, let other churches rejoice in so

precious a treasure of the milk of the Blessed

Virgin if each of them can confirm what they
possess by solid documents proportionate to so
126
great antiquity."

The significance of this well-expressed opinion

of the Bollandists is manifest, and solves the

difficulty. But now two very important questions

arise: (i) Was the object called the milk of our
Blessed Ladye shown in good faith as such; or
(2) was the term "milk of our Ladye" a con
ventional one, and applied to an object, the real
nature of which was well known and understood ?
i. Considering the careful supervision exercised

by the bishops, and that no can be exposed relic

publicly for with an

veneration unless sealed
authorized seal, and duly authenticated, it seems
in the highest degree improbable that "our

Ladye s Milk" was ever shown as being really

126
Acta SS> t. iv. Aug. pp. 20, 21.
2O2 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

such. The suppression of the devotion to the Holy

Blood of Windesnack in Brandenburg, to which
there was a great pilgrimage for many years, proves
the vigilance of the Church in regard of relics
not wholly satisfactory. 1 27 No one in his senses
would ever dream of exhibiting a flask of white
Rhine wine as and much less as "our
"milk,"

Ladye s milk or a bottle of red wine as the

"

"tears" of Christ our Lord; yet the well-known

Liebefraumilch, is which
commonly called
"Maiden s milk,"
means literally "our dear
Ladye s milk;" and every visitor to Vesuvius
remembers the Lachryma Christi wine. In both
these instances the names are purely conventional,
and known to be such.
2. There can be no doubt that the term
"Milk of our
Ladye" as applied to objects
shown
as such is a purely conventional name.

Between two and three hundred paces south

east from the Basilica on the eastern side of the
hill on which Bethlehem stands, there is a grotto

venerated alike by Christians and Mussulmans

and commonly called the Crypta Lactea and
Grotte du Lait. The Arabs call it Meharet es-
Si ttt, the Grotto of our Ladye. 128 It belongs to

the Franciscans, who go there every Saturday to

celebrate Mass, and to sing the Litanies of our
Blessed Ladye.
There are many traditions as to the origin of
its name indeed Mislin says that every one has
;

his own version but they are all unanimous on

;

one and the main point, which is that our Ladye

spiltsome drops of her milk in this grotto. 129

Hence its name and this is the reason why the
:

earth brought from it is called the Milk of our

Blessed Ladye.

127For its history see J. P. de Ludewig, Reliquia: Manuscriptomm omnis

Diplomatum ac Monumentomm. Francofurti et Lipsiae, 1731, vol. viii. pp. 438
468. For the suppression see Riedel, Cod. Dipl. Brandenburg, t. ii. p. 121 et seq.
128
Description Geographique, Historique et Archeologique de la Palestine. Par
M. V. Guerin Imprimee, par autorisation de 1
Empereur a 1 Imprimerie Imperiale.
Paris, 1868, t. I, p. 1 86.
129
Les Saints Pienx. PeUrinage a Jerusalem, &c. Par Mgr. Mislin, Abbe Mitre
de Sainte Marie de Deg. en Hongrie. Paris, 1858, t. Hi. pp. 3133.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 203

Some say that our Ladye often retired to this

grotto; others that she reposed one night in it
on her way to Egypt; others, again, that being
alarmed by the threats of Herod, her milk
suddenly dried up, and that she retired to this
cave, believing she would be in greater security
there than elsewhere. Finding herself unable to
nourish her Divine Son, she made her prayer to
the Almighty, and forthwith her milk returned in
such abundance that a few drops fell upon the
ground. Hence why the rock is said to derive its
peculiar property, when pulverized and mixed in
water, and then imbibed, of preventing those who
nurse from suffering of a diminution of their milk.
This is no modern belief; on the contrary, it

appears to be very ancient. In 1598, John

Cotwyck, of Utrecht, a Doctor Utriusque Juris,
embarked at Venice on his way to Syria and the
Holy Land. He evidently brought back some
of the earth called our Ladye s Milk from the
Grotto of the Milk, because he says that he had
seen the effects of it amongst his own people, and
thus learned that the opinion of the Orientals was
not without foundation. 130 Then there is the evi
dence of the Commissary Apostolic and Guardian of
the Holy Sepulchre, Father Francis Quaresma or
131
Quaresmi, who bears witness to similar results ;
so does a Canon of St. Paul s at Saint Denis, in
132
165 2 ; and also Surius, a few years later; 133
while Father Michael Nau, of the Society of
Jesus, says
"

Je 1? assure pas que cette terre serf beaucoup

dans les autres maladies, mais pour ce qui est de
rendre le lait aux femmes qui I ont perdu, et d en
faire venir a celles qui en ont peu c*est line chose
si certaine et si infallible que les infideks memes en
ont fait mille fois r experience" 1 ^
130
Cottovicus, Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum et Syriacum. Antv. 1619, p. 238.
131
Quaresmius, Historica, Theologica et Moralis Terra; Sanctce elucidatio. Antv.
1639, t. ii.
p. 678.
132
Le Voyage de la Terre*Sainte, &c. Fait 1 an 1652. Par M. J. D. P. Chanoine.
de 1 Eglise Royale et Collegiale de Saint Paul a Saint-Denis en France. Paris, 1657,
cap. xix. pp. 164, 165.
133
Le Pietix Pelerin ou Voyage a Jerusalem. Bruxelles, 1666, p. 148.
134
Voyage nouveau & la Tern Sainte^ p, 426.
2O4 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye.

Mislin and Gue rin, who are the latest writers,

and Quaresma, Father Nau, and the Canon of
Saint Paul s, all mention that there is a continual
resort to this grotto by the women of the neigh
bourhood, Arabs, Mussulmans, and
Christians,
Jewesses, who pray in it. According to Mislin
the earth is like chalk, very white, and easily
reducible to powder, and it is then made into
little cakes which are sent all over the
country,
and which pilgrims carry away with them as
objects of devotion or curiosity. This is a custom
which dates very far back, and so great is the
demand for
"

our Ladye s Milk," that the grotto,

which originally was small, has now become
greatly enlarged; a fact which Quaresma men
tions as well. 135
There is a slight discrepancy in the description
of the earth excavated from the grotto. Quaresma
says itreddish, but that when powdered in a
is

mortar and reduced to powder and then well

washed and sifted and exposed to the sun it
becomes as white as milk lacti simillima evadit.
The Canon of St. Paul s observes that by this
process it is made blanche comme le laict. Mislin
describes the earth as chalky, very friable, and
easily reduced to powder. Gue rin says that it
consists of a sort of calcareous tufa, like chalk,
and very friable, and easily scraped from the
grotto. Like
the other writers, he bears
all

testimony to the great antiquity of the custom of

carrying away portions of this earth known as
our Ladye s Milk.
Mislin also notices a circumstance which I
have not seen mentioned by others. He says
that sometimes in damp weather a liquid sub
stance exudes from the sides of the cave, which
is called the Milk of our
Ladye, instead of the
milk of the grotto of our 136
Ladye.
The precise manner
which the Milk of in
our Ladye at Walsingham, as described by Erasmus,
coincides with the account which these writers
give of what is called our Ladye s Milk in Pales
tine leaves no doubt that it was a
portion of the
la5 :36
Ut sup. I, c. Ut sup. p. 33.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 205

scrapings from the Crypta Lactea of Bethlehem.

In 1854 Canon Bourassee, of Tours, the learned
editor of the Summa Aurea, was commissioned

by the Cardinal Archbishop of that city to open

a silver shrine, and identify the relics which it
contained. Amongst the contents he found a
fragment of stone, resembling marble, and of the
colour of snow; it was folded up in a piece of
vellum, on which was written De lacte Beate

This seems to be the real history and signifi

cation of what is called
"

Our Ladye s Milk ;

"

hence it is easy to account for the quantity of

it, which has been brought at various times into

Europe. Indeed, considering the veneration

which is attached to pieces of earth, or stone,
or wood brought away from any of the holy
places connected with the Life, Passion, and
Death of Christ our Lord, it is most natural
that the Crypta Lactea, so intimately associated
by tradition with the Infancy of our Lord and
His Blessed Mother, should have come in for
a share of that veneration. Relics of this des
cription are an early period; thus
mentioned at
St. Augustine speaks of earth brought from the

Holy Sepulchre and of the veneration in which

138
it was held. Neither Venerable Bede, 189 nor
140
St. Adamnan, Abbot of Hy, mention the
Crypta Lactea; but Hardouin, Bishop of Le
Mans in the time of Clovis the Second, received
some of the "Milk of our Ladye" from a
pilgrim who had returned from the Holy
Land. 1 "

Several of these relics from the Holy

Land were found enclosed in lead, in the
head of the ancient image of our Ladye of
Thetford. 142

137
Summa Aurea, t. xi. col. 710, note. Cf. Colvener. Kalendarium Marianum
ad diem 4 Febr. II. 3.
133
De Civitate Dei, lib. xxii. cap. viii.
139
De locis Sanctis,
opp. t.
cap. xv. p. 434.
iv. Edit. Giles.
10
De locis Sanctis, lib. ii.
cap. ii. Patrol. Lat. t. Ixxxviii. col. 795. Edit. Migne.
41
Quoted by Darras. La Legende de Notre Dame, Paris, 1852, p. 113.
142
See ante, p. 149.
206 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Erasmus puts into the mouth of Menedemtis

some expressions about the quantity of our
Ladye s Milk which was said to exist, and which
I will not quote but they seem to have been
;

introduced in order to give himself, in the char

acter of Ogygius, the opportunity of saying as
follows :

So they say of the Cross of our Lord which

"

is shown publicly and privately in so many

places, that, if all the fragments were collected
together, they would appear to form a fair cargo
for a merchant ship, and yet our Lord bore His
whole Cross." This latter assertion is quite at
variance with the Gospels, for our Lord never
carried His Cross, in the sense of balanced on
His shoulder and wholly raised from the ground.
The third part of the Homily against the Peril of
the pieces thereof were
"

Idolatry says that, if all

gathered together, the greatest ship in England

would scarcely bear them."
Calvin, I believe, generally has the credit
of being the originator of this stupendous lie
which has been so sedulously propagated by his
followers and by heretics of all persuasions, and
to which implicit faith is given by very many
in these days. Now this colloquy of the Pere-
grinatio, present form, appears to have
in its

been printed, at the latest, in 1524, at which

time Calvin was only fifteen years of age, he
having been inflicted upon the world at Noyon,
in Picardy, on the loth July, 1509. Conse
quently, he would seem only to have adopted
the fable, which, in common fairness, must be
attributed to the fertile and mischievous brain
of Erasmus.
I have so often met with references to this
fable, and moreover, I have so often heard it
asserted in reply, and often in perfect good faith,
that the multiplication of the wood of the True
Cross was miraculous, 143 that I feel I shall do
a good service to the cause of truth if I give a
brief statement of the real facts. Indeed, as
Erasmus commences his attack on the True
143
Cf. e.g. Morlot, Hist, de la Vtile de Reims. Reims, 1843, v. iii.
p. 533.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 207

Cross in his Peregrinatio to Walsingham, it is

fitting that he should receive his refutation under
the protection of our Ladye of Walsingham, the
Blissful Queen of Heaven, whose Dower it is

England s glory still to be ; a title which, by the

way, England has never lost, notwithstanding
that recently, and for the first time, an attempt
has been made to rob her of it. 144
.

A few years ago a learned French gentleman,

M. Rohault de Fleury, applied himself to a careful
study and critical examination of the relics of
the various Instruments of the Passion of our
Lord, but more especially of the Holy Cross
and the Crown of Thorns. He received every
facility for carrying out his object. He com
menced his investigations by submitting portions
of four well authenticated pieces those of the
Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome, of the Cathe
dral of Pisa, of the Cathedral of Florence, and
of Notre Dame in Paris to a microscopical
examination, in his presence, by two learned
men of undoubted reputation, M. Decaisne,
Member of the Institute, and Signer Peter Savi,
Professor in the University of Pisa. The result
of this examination proved that the wood of the
True Cross was of the genus fir. The specific
gravity of the various conifers differs : Scotch
fir,0^56; pinus abies, 0^46; pinus epicea, 0-52;
yellow pine, o 66. M. de Fleury has selected
0-56 as the mean, and for his standard, and on
these figures he has based his calculations. 145
Now it has been established by Paucton, that
a porter can carry a weight of 90 kilogrammes,
or 198 Ibs., a distance of 5 kilometres, or 3|- miles,
in one hour; and a carrier of coals, who often
146
rests, can bear 115 kilogrammes, or 253 Ibs. ;
but Laisne 147 and Charles Duffin give lesser

weights.
144
In the Introduction, cap. ii. which was written several years ago, I have given
the full history of how England became the Dos Maria, and how she still preserves
the title.
345
Metnoire sur Ics Instruments dc la Passion de N. S. /. C. par Ch. Rohault de
Fleury, ancien eleve de 1Ecole polytechnique. Paris Lesort, 1870, p. 71.
:

14(i
Mctrologie. 1780, p. 94.
147
Aide-memoire des Ojficiers du genie, 1853, p. 69.
2o8 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

The late M. Duprez, who was an able prac

titioner, considered that a strong carpenter can

carry a decistcre 1 ^ of wood equal to about
100 kilogrammes, or 222 Ibs. a distance of
40 to 50 metres at most; that is to say, by
walking for two minutes, and then resting for
three ; and that he could continue in this way
for an hour. Under these conditions, it would
have taken an hour to pass along the Via Dolo-
rosa. Now the weight of the Cross was such
that our Lord was unable to support it all the

while, and required the assistance of Simon the

Cyrenean.
If, therefore, the weight of 100 kilogrammes

be taken as a maximum, it should be considered

that our Lord was terribly weakened by His

sufferings, and that His executioners were rapidly

exhausting His remaining strength consequently, ;

the weight of the Cross might be estimated at

three-fourths, or 75 kilogrammes. As the Cross
was not balanced on the shoulder, but trailed
on the ground, the diminution of weight may,
in consequence, be taken at 25 kilogrammes;

therefore, on this calculation, the full weight of

the Cross may be estimated at 100 kilogrammes,
or 222 Ibs.

Now, from these figures it is

easy to calculate
the bulk of the Cross, by dividing the weight
by the density of the fir, 0-56, which gives
178,000,000 of cube millimetres.
Having obtained these results, M. Rohault
de Fleury began to examine the sizeand bulk
of all the known authentic relics of the Holy
Cross ;
and in nearly every instance he has given
plans of the various pieces; and in his calcula
tions he leaves a margin, so that he is invariably,
if anything, over the mark. He wrote for plans
and details on all sides ;
and after this exhaustive

inquiry, his investigations have succeeded in

making up the volume of all the known relics

of the Holy Cross only to 3,941,975 cube milli
metres say, in round numbers, 4,000,000. Now,
allowing a very large margin for relics of the
148
Or 3^ cubic feet.
149
A millimetre is 39337 of an inch.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 209

Holy Cross which may be in private hands, or

may not have come to the notice of M. Rohault

de Fleury say, multiply the quantity known by
10 which must convince the most
this quantity,

sceptical only amounts to 40,000,000, or less

than one-fourth of the bulk ; and there is a
deficit of 138,000,000 millimetres still to be
accounted for !

I am
aware that the Commissioners, who were
employed in the suppression of the Monasteries
in England, reported that at Bury St. Edmunds
there were peeces of the Holie Crosse able to
"

15
make a hole crosse of ; one of "

but this is

the usual official period, and

lies does
of the
not deserve even a contemptuous notice. To
this particular one I have merely referred, because
some writers, either from malice or ignorance,
seem to consider it valuable evidence.
Sometimes small pieces of the Holy Cross
were mounted in a wooden cross of larger size,
into which a small cavity had been scooped out
to receive the relic. A cross of this description,
and presented by the Prince of Bosnia, is now
preserved in the Treasury of St. Mark s at Venice,
151
and figured by M. Rohault de Fleury.
is These
outer crosses in reality served as reliquaries.
In 1534 the Canons ofWalsingham acknow
I have not ascer
ledged the Royal Supremacy.
tained whether the whole of the Community signed
the deed, but the names of twenty-two, including
the Prior and Sub-Prior, are affixed to it.
The document is in Latin, and commences
thus :

Quum ea sit non sohun Christiane religionis

et pictatis etiam obediende regula,
ratio, sed nostre
Domino Regi nostro Henrico ejus nominis octavo,
cui iini et soli post Christum Jesum servatorem
nostrum debemus universa, non modo omnimodam
in Christo et eandem sinceram, integram, perpetu-

amque animi et observandam,

devotionem, fidem
honorem, cultum, reverendam prestcmns, sed etiam
150
Letters relating to the Stippression of the Monasteries, p. 85.
151
Plate viil. n. 2, p. 103. It is greatly to be desired that this most valuable
work were translated into English.
2io Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

de eadem fide et observantia nostra rationem quo-

tiescunque postulabitur reddamus et palam omnibus

(si res postulat] libentissime testemur ;
Let all to whom the present writing may
come know that we, the Prior and Community
of the Priory of Walsingham, in the diocese of
Norwich, with one mouth and voice, and with
the unanimous consent and assent of all, by this

deed, given under our common seal in our

chapter-house, do, for ourselves and our suc
cessors, all and each, for ever, declare, attest,
and faithfully promise and undertake, that we,
the said Prior and Community and our successors,
all and each, will ever render an entire, inviolate,

sincere, and perpetual fidelity, submission, and

reverence to the lord our King, Henry the

Eighth, and to Queen Anne, his Consort, and

to the issue of him by the said Anne lawfully

begotten, as well as to be begot; and that we

will make known,preach, and counsel the same
to the
people whenever an opportunity or an
occasion shall be given.
Item, that we hold as confirmed and ratified,
and will always and for ever hold, that the afore
said Henry our King is the Head of the Anglican
Church.
Item, that the Bishop of Rome, who in his
Bulls usurps the name of Pope and arrogates
to himself the sovereignty of Chief Bishop, [has
not any greater jurisdiction conferred on him
by God than apy other extern Bishop.
Item, that none of us, in any holy discourse
to be held in private or in public, shall call the
said Bishop of Rome by the name of Pope or
Chief Bishop, but by the name of the Bishop
of Rome, or of the Roman Church; and that
none of us shall pray for him as Pope, but as
Bishop of Rome.
Item, that we will adhere to the said lord
the King and to his successors, and will
alone,
maintain his laws and decrees, renouncing for
ever the laws, decrees, and canons of the Bishop
of Rome which shall be contrary to the Divine
Law and Holy Scripture.
 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye. 211

Item, that not one of all of us shall, in any

sermon, public or private, attempt to misconstrue
any passage taken from Holy Scripture into a
foreign sense j but each shall preach, in a catholic
and orthodox manner, Christ and His words and
actions, simply, openly, sincerely, and to the form
(normam) and rule of the Holy Scriptures, and
of the truly catholic and orthodox doctors.
Item, that each of us, in his accustomed
prayers and supplications, shall recommend to
God and the prayers of the people, first of all
the King as Supreme Head of the Anglican
Church, then Queen Anne with her offspring,
and then, lastly, the Archbishops of Canterbury
and of York, with the other orders of clergy as
shall seem fit.

Item, that we all and each aforesaid, Prior,

Community, and our successors, firmly bind our
selves by the pledge of our conscience and our

oath; and that we will faithfully and for ever

observe all and each of the promises aforesaid.
In testimony whereof we have affixed our common
seal to this our writing, and, each with his own

hand, have subscribed our names. Given in our

chapter-house, the i8th day of the month of
September, the year of the Lord one thousand
152
five hundred and thirty-four.

per me RICARD VOWEL, Priorem.

per me WILLELMUM RASE.
per me EDMUNDUM WAR HAM, Subpriorem.
per me JOHANNEM CLENCH WARDTON.
per me NICHOLAUM MYLEHAM.
per me ROBERTUM SALL .

per me ROBERTUM WYLSEY.

per me WILLELMUM CASTELLACRE.
per me SIMONEM OVY.
per me JOHANNEM HARLOW.
per me JOHANNEM LAWINXLEY.
per me RICARDUM GARNETT.
per me JOHANNEM CLARK.

152
Original preserved in the late Treasury of the Exchequer, in the Chapter-house,
Westminster. Acknowledgments of Supremacy, n. 112. Journal of Royal Archceo-
logical Institute, v. xiii.
p. 128,
212 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

per me JOHANNEM AWSTYNE.

per me JOHANNEM MATHYE.
per me THOMAM PAWLUM.
per me EDWARDUM MARSTONE.
per me JOHANNEM BYRCHAM.
per me JOHANNEM HADLAY.
per me THOMAM HOLTE.
per me THOMAM WALSYNGHAM.
per me UMFREDUM LONDON.
(Z.S.)

Amongst the Harleian MSS. are preserved

some Articles of Enquiry which were to guide
the Commissioners in their unholy proceedings.
The three first have an especial eye to the
plunder.
1. In primis, whether there be any inventarie
allweys permanent in the house betwene the
priour and the brethern of this house, as welle
of alle the juelles, reliques, and ornamentes of the
churche and chapel, as of alle the plate and
other moveable goodes of this house? Et si
sic exhibeatur.

2. Item, yf be no suche inventarie,

there
whether there be any boke made therof, and
of the guyfte of the juelles that have bene geven
to our Ladye ? Et si sic producatur.

3. Item, whether any of the said juelles, orna

mentes, plate, or goodes hathe bene alienated,
solde, or pledged at any tyme heretofore? And
yf there were, what they were, to whome they
were solde, for how moche, whan, and for what
cause ?

4. Item, what reliques be in this house that

be or hath bene most in th estimacion of the
people, and what vertue was estemed of the
people to be in theym?
5. Item, what probacion or argument have
they to shewe that the same are trewe reliques ?
6. Item, in howe many places of this house

were the said reliques shewed, and whiche were

in which; and whether the kepers of the same
did not bring about tables to men for their
offering, as though they would exacte money of
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 213

theym or make theym ashamed except they did

offer?

7. Item, for what cause were the said reliques

shewed in divers [and] sundrye places more than

altogether in one place?

8. Item, what hathe th offring made to our

Ladye and to the said bene worth a

reliques
yere whan it hathe bene most? what commonly?
and what the laste yere?
9. Item, yf the said reliques be nowe layde
aside, howe long ago, and for what cause they
were so?
10. Item, what is the greatest miracle and

moste undoubted whiche is said to have bene

doon by our Ladye here, or by any of the said

reliques ? and what prouffe they have of the facte

or of the narracion thereof?
Item, whether thane (yf the facte be welle
11.

proued) the case might not happene by some

naturalle meane not contrarie to reasone or possi-
bilitie of nature?
12. Item, yf that be proved also, whether the
same mighte not precede of the immediate helpe
of God ? and why the successe of that case shulde
be imputed to our Ladye and yet that to the
image of our Ladye in this house more than
another ?

13. Item, whether the miracle were wonte to

be declared in pulpite heretofore, and for what
cause they were soe ? a Whitesonne
Monday the faire tyme they were wonte to be
opened ?
14. Item, what is the sayng of the buylding
of our Lady Chappelle, and the firste invencion
of thimage of our Lady there? what of the
house where the bere skynne is, and of the
knyght; and what of the other wonders that be
here, and what proves be therof ?
15. Item, whether they knowe not
that mene
shulde not be lighte of credite to miracles, unlesse
they be manifestly and invinciblie proved ?
1 6. Item, whether our Lady hathe doone so

many miracles nowe of late as it was said she

did whane there was more offring made unto her ?
214 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

17. Item, what prouffe were they wonte to

take of the miracles that the pilgremes did reporte
shulde be made by our Lady? and whether they
bileved the parties owne reporte therin, or toke
witnes, and howe they toke the deposicions of
the same?
1 8.
Item, whether our Ladye s milke be liquide
or no ? and yf it be interrogetur ^tt infra.

19. Item, who was Sextene upon a X. yeres

agoo or therabout, and lett hym be exactely
examined whether he hath not renewed that they
calle our Lady s milke whane it was like to be
dried up ; and whether ever he hymself invented
any relique for thaugmentacion of his prouffit ;
and whether the house over the welles were not
made within
tyme of remembrance, or at the
leste wiserenewed? 153
Erasmus had taken good care not to publish
the account of his visit to Walsingham until he
had left England, and crossed the Ocean, the
Father of Winds, never to return. Copies of it,
however, must have found their way to England,
and it is impossible not to come to the con
clusion that many of the articles for this enquiry
must have been suggested by it.
I have been unable to ascertain whether the
Commissioners made any report in detail, in reply
to these queries; but a letter from Southwell to
Cromwell has been preserved.
On the 25th of July, 1536, Southwell writes
to Cromwell

It may please your good lordshipe to be

advertised that Sir Thomas Lestrange and Mr.

Hoges, accordinge unto the sequestratyon dele
gate unto them, have bene at Walsingham, and
ther sequestred all suche monney, plate, juelles,
and stuff, as ther wasse inventyd and founde.
Emoung other thinges the same Sir Thomas
Lestrange and Mr. Hoges dyd there fynd a secrete
prevye place within the howse, where no channon
nor onnye other of the howse dyd ever enter, as
they saye, in wiche there were instrewmentes,
153
MS, Harl, 791, f. 27.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 215

pottes, belowes, flyes of suche strange colers as

the lick non of us had scene with poysies 154 and
other thinges to sorte and denyd 155 gould and
sylver, nothing there wantinge that should belonge
to the arte of moultyplyeng. Off all wiche they
desyred me by lettres to advertyse you, and
alsoo that frome the Satredaye at nigh tyll the
Sondaye next folowinge was offred at their
now beinge xxxiijj. m]d. over and besyd waxe.
Of this moulteplyenge it maye please you to
cawse hem to be examyned, and so to advertyse
unto them your further pleasuer. Thus I praye
god send your good lordshipe hartye helthe.
Frome my pore howse this xxv. of Julii a xxviii.

Humblye yours to commande

RlC. SOUTHWELL. 150

To the right honerable and my

syngular good lord my lord prevye
ceale.

This description and "arte of moulteplyeng

"

evidently refer to the laboratory where the badges

and pilgrims signs were made. Such a privy
furnace, very probably destined for a similar
purpose, may still be seen in an upper chamber
157
in Canterbury Cathedral. The only multiplier
in the case Southwell, who possessed, in com
is

mon with many others, the arte of moulteplyeng

" "

the satisfaction of Cromwell.

lies for

have never met with a Walsingham badge ;

I
but a cast of one is described in the Journal of
the Royal Archaeological Institute. It is a small
rectangular ornament of lead, on which appears
the Annunciation, with the vase containing the
between our Blessed Ladye and the Archangel
lily

Gabriel,and underneath is raUal^stmm. 158

In 1537, an insurrection broke out at Walsing
ham. The cause was this. The inhabitants found
164
i.e. weights.
155
Probably foreign money.
156
MS. Cott. Cleop. E. iv. f.
231 ; Letters relating to the Suppression of tht
Monasteries, p. 138.
157
Journal of Royal Arch. Insf. v. xiii. p. 133.
188
Ibid. v. xiii, p. 133.
216 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

out that the dissolution of religious houses, and

the suppression of pilgrimages to the ancient and
venerated sanctuary of our Ladye would, in a
159
great measure, prove their- ruin. This little
disturbance was quelled with a savage and bloody
hand ; and in the same year two of the rebelles
"
"

who had taken part in the insurrection, were

hanged at Great Yarmouth, and drawn and
160
quartered.
On the aoth of January, 1538, Roger Town-
send writes to Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal. 161

Please itt your good lordshipp to be avertysed

that ther was a pore woman of Wellys besyde

Walsyngham, that imagyned a falce tale of a
myracle to be doon by the image of our Ladye that
was at Walsyngham syth the same was brought from
thens to London and upon the tryall thereof, by
;

my examinacon from one person to another, to

the nomber of vi. persons, and at last came to her
that she was the reporter thereof, and to be the

very auctour of the same, as ferforth as my

consciens and perceyvying cowd lede me ;
I

commytted her therfor to the warde of the con

stables of Walsyngham. The next day after,
beyng markett day ther, I caused her to be sett
in stokkes in the mornyng, and about ix. of
the clok when the seyd markett was fullest of
people, with a papir sett aboute her hede, wreten
wyth thes wordes upon the same, reporter of A
falce tales, was sett in a carte and so carryed
about the markett-stede, and other stretes in the

town, steying in dyvers places wher most people

assembled, yong people and boyes of the town
castyng snowe balles att her. Thys doon and
executed, was brought to the stokkes ageyn and
ther sett till the markett was ended. This was
her penans for I knewe no lawe otherwyse to
;

ponyshe her butt by discrecon trustyng itt shall ;

be a warnying to other lyght persons in such

wyse to order them self. Howe be itt I cannot
169
General History of Norfolk, pp. 607, 608,
160
Manship. Palmer s Notes, v. i. p. 413.
111
He was made Lord Privy Seal, 2nd of July, 1536.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 217

perceyve, but the seyd Image is not yett out of

sum of ther heddes . Wreten the xxth of
. .

January.
Humbly at your comande,
162
ROGER TouNESHEND.

At the suppression, fifteen of the Canons of

of
Walsingham were condemned for high treason,
whom five were executed.
The deed of the surrender of Walsingham
and property to the King
all its was executed in
the chapter-house on the 4th of August, in the
Eighth. No names
of the are
thirtieth year Henry
to it is merely stated that the
appended it,

Prior and Convent caused their common seal

to be put to it. The following memorandum is
attached to it. Et memorandum quod die et anno
venerunt predidi Prior et Conventus in
predictis
coram
domo sua Capitulari apud Walsyngham
Willielmo Petre, pretextu Commissionis dicti Domini
Regis ei in hac parte directe,
et recognoverunt scrip-

turn predictum ac omnia et singula in eodem contenta

*6 "

in forma predicta.
This Sir William Petre was a great favourite
of Cromwell
s, and one of the Commissioners
of which
employed by him to visit monasteries,
had nominated Cromwell
Henry the Eighth
General Visitor. Sir William was afterwards
of high trust
Secretary of State, and held posts
in four successive reigns. He had large grants
out of the spoils of the monasteries as enumerated
164
in the Britannica ;
Biographia
and in the reign
Paul the
of Queen Mary he obtained from Pope
retain them.
Fourth, a Bull permitting him to
The venerated Image of our Ladye of Wal
singham was burnt at Chelsea, but there is a
discrepancy as to the date of the perpetration
of this sacrilegious act.
says Wriothesley,
"in
"Allso this yeare, 1538,"

the moneth of July, the images of our Ladye

to
of Walsingham and Ipswich were brought up
State Paper Office, Second Series,
18S xliii. p. 193.
a
Given in full in the Journal of Royal Arch. fust. v. xiii. pp. 129131.
i 64
Life of Petre.
218 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

London with all the jewelles that honge about

them, at the King s commaundement, and divers
other images both in England and Wales, that
were used for common pilgrimages, because the

people should use noe more idolatrye unto them,

and they were burnt at Chelsey by my Lord
Privie 165
Scale."

Hall says it was in the month of September.

"In
September, by the speciall mocion of the
Lorde Crumwel al the notable images vnto the
which were made any speciall pilgrimages and
offerynges were vtterly taken awaye, as the images
of Walsyngham, Ypswirche, Worceter, the
Lady
of Wilsdon, with many other." 166 And
according
to Speede, they were burnt in the
presence of
Cromwell. 167
The following elegy is preserved in a volume
lettered "Earl of Arundell MS.," amongst the
Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian library, Oxon.
In the wrackes of Walsingam
Whom should I chuse
But the Queene of Walsingam
be guide to my muse ?
to
Then thou Prince of Walsingam,
graunt me to frame
Bitter plaintes to rewe thy
wronge,
bitter wo for thy name.

Bitter was it, oh to see

the seely sheepe
Murdred by the raueninge wolues,
while the sheephardes did sleep.
Bitter was it, oh to vewe
the sacred vyne,
Whiles the gardiners plaied all close,
rooted vp by the swine.

Bitter, bitter, oh to behoukl

the grasse to growe
Where the walles of Walsingam
so statly did sheue.
Such were the workes of Walsingam
while shee did stande
Such are the wrackes as now do shewe
Of that holy land !

Levell, Levell with the ground

the towres do lye,
* 65 166
V. i.
p. 83. Chronicles, Lond. 1809, p. 826.
w Hist, of England, p. 1026.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 219

Which with their golden glitteringe tops

pearsed once to the skye.

Where weare gates, no gates are nowe ;

the waies vnknowen

Wher the presse of peares did passe
while her fame far was blowen.
Oules do scrike wher the sweetest himnes
lately weer songe ;
Toades and serpentes hold ther dennes
wher the Palmers did thronge.

Weepe, weepe, O Walsingam

whose dayes are nightes,
Blessinges turned to blasphemies,
holy deedes to dispites.
Sinne is wher our Ladie sate,
heauen turned is to hell,
Sathan sittes wher our Lord did swaye,
168
Walsingam, oh farewell.

An impression of the seal of Walsingham

to the acknow
Priory, in white wax, is appended
ledgment of Supremacy. It is about three inches
in diameter, and circular. On the obverse is
a cruciform church of Norman char
represented
acter,and the inscription SIGILLVM ECCL IE BEATE
MARIE DE WALSINGHAM. The reverse represents
our Blessed Ladye seated on a peculiar high-
backed throne she holds her Divine Son on her
;

left knee, His right hand is extended in the

attitude of blessing, and in His left hand He

holds the Book of the Gospels. On her head
is a low crown, an elegantly floriated sceptre is in
her right hand ; the draperies are poor and in low
is a sort of canopy
relief, and above the figures
with curtains looped back at either side, and
falling in ungraceful folds. The Angelical Salu
tation is engraved around the margin. AVE >J
:

MARIA : GRACIA PLENA DOMIVUS TECUM.

: : Ill :

addition to the less archaic effect of the workman

ship, suggesting the notion
that this side may be
the reproduction of an earlier seal, it may be
noticed that the word PLENA is blundered, a D
which
being found in the place of N, an error
occur from the similarity of the two
might easily
letters in the particular character here used.

168 Rawl. MSS. Poet. 242, given also in Percy s Folio Manuscript Ballads : and
Romances. Edit, Hales and Furnivall, Lond. 1868, v. iii, pp. 470, 471.
22O Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

From the general execution, however, of the seals,

their date may probably be assigned to the later
part of the twelfth or commencement of the
thirteenth century. This impression supplies an
example of the rare practice of impressing an
inscription upon the edge or thickness of the seal,
as on that of Norwich Cathedral, the city of
109
Canterbury, and a few others. In the present
instance, the following words of a Leonine verse
may be decyphered VIRGO : PIA : GENITRIX : SIT :

NOBIS 170
:
(MEDIATRIX?).
At Bodmin there was a Gild of Our Ladye of
171
Walsingham.
After passing to different proprietors, Wal
singham was purchased in 1766 by Dr. Warner,
Bishop of Rochester; and it still continues in
the family of Lee-Warner. The site of the
renowned Sanctuary of our Ladye has recently
been deeply buried beneath a terraced parterre.
May it be hoped that the Lily and the Marygold,
and the Forget-me-not les yeux de Notre Dame,
as it was called are amongst the flowers which
blossom on that once hallowed soil.
And now, for the present, Walsingham, oh !

farewell !

Felix et sancta fuisti;

Sis modo qualis eras, sic pia vota pctunt !

WARWICK. Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who

died at Rouen on the 3oth April, 1439, by his
will, dated Caversham, gth August, 1435, leaves
directions that he is to be buried within the

Collegiate Church of Our Ladye of Warwick :

"Where I will that in such place as I have

already devised (which is well known), there be
made a chapell of our Ladye, well, faire, and
goodly built, within the middle of which chapell
I will that my tombe be made.
"

Allsoe I will that in the name of Herryott to

1M See remarks on Madden.

this peculiarity by the late Sir F. Archaologia,
V. XX.
170
Journal of Royal Arch. Inst. v. xiii. pp. 126, 127.
171
Lysons, Magna Britannia, Cornwall, p. 35.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 221

our Ladye there be given myne image of gold,

172
and of our Ladye there to abide for evermore.
This is the description of the image of our

Ladye from the inventory taken on day of

the last

March, 1468.
A feire ymage of gold of oure ladi goddes
"

moder crouned with gold beryng hir sone in the

in his hande a braunche made
right arme holdyng
of a ruby and iiij. perles and in the middes of
thoo a litel grene stone. This
perles is pight
iiij.

stant on a tablement of gold, whuche

ymage
tablement and the forseide crowne are richly
garnished w* perles balices
and safiers completly
as it was furst made save onely in the said
tablemet ther failleth in ii places. This ymage

my seide lord late Erl of Warrewik bequath for

his heriet to his chirche colleg aforeseide therein

to abide for evermore. And this ymage vveieth in
XX
p cious stones and gold as now and
al it is
^
xv unc and di unc.
173 And it bereth in heighte
fro the lower side of the tablement to the over
174
part of the crowne xx unches large."

WELLS. There was a foundation for the support of a

lamp to burn before the image of our Ladye
in
175
the cathedral.
In 131 1, by his will, Richard de Chepmanslade,
vicar of Wells, leaves 40 d. for the light of our
Parens is sung,
Ladye where the Salve Sancta
176
behind the high altar.

WENSLEYDALE. Our Ladye of Wynsladale, mentioned under

Coverham. 177 I have not ascertained which
Ladye of our in Wensleydale
particular sanctuary
in the North Riding of Yorkshire was known by
that name.

WESTMINSTER. I.The Abbey.

Henry the Third pulled down the abbey built
St. Eadward, and laid the first stone of the
by
172
Notices of the Churches in Warwickshire. Warwick, 1847, vol. i. p. 54-
174 175 Valor Eccl. vol. i.
173 i.e. Notices, nt sup. p. 56. p. 139.
95^ oz.
176 Third the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. p. 361.
Report of
177 See ante, p. 27.
222 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

new one in the fifth year of his reign, 1220. The

erection occupied fifty years.
The Queen up the celebrated silver image
set
of our Blessed Ladye in the feretory of St. Eadward;
and in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, Henry
the Third caused Edward Fitz-Odo, keeper of his
works at Westminster, to place upon the forehead
of that image of our Ladye an emerald and a

ruby taken out of two rings which the Bishop of

of Chichester had left to the said King for a
178
legacy.
On the opposite side was an ivory image of
our had been highly prized by
Ladye which
St. Thomas
of Canterbury, and offered by him to
the shrine of St. Eadward.
In the same year, 1220, Henry the Third laid
also the foundation of our Ladye s chapel, called
the New
Work, to which he gave his coronation
spurs, as proved by one of the Close Rolls.
is

The King, &c. Deliver from our treasure to

"

the Prior of Westminster our gold spurs, which

were made for our first coronation at Westminster,
which we have given to the New Work of the
chapel of Blessed Marye at Westminster. Tested
at Westminster, 19 November." 179
This chapel of our Ladye was taken down by
Henry the Seventh, who replaced it by the one
generally now called by his name. It had the

indulgence of the Scala Ccelt, which Pope

Alexander the Sixth had given to the chapel of
St. George at Windsor. Henry the Seventh had
originally determined to be buried at Windsor,
and consequently obtained this Pardon from the

Sovereign Pontiff; but having changed his mind

and resolved to build the chapel of our Ladye at
Westminster, in which his body should be laid, he
had this
indulgence transferred to it by Pope
Julius the Second, in whose Bull, dated 2oth May,
1504, these details are set forth. The indulgence,
however, was not general; it was confined to
three of the monks and one secular priest. 180

178
Stow, bk. vi. p. 8.
m Close Rolls. 5 Hen. III. vol. i.
p. 440.
180
Mon. Angl. vol. i.
p. 320.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 223

2. Our Ladye at the North Door.

The inventory of Westminster Abbey, taken at

the dissolution, mentions

"

Oon cote of clothe of golde for O r

Ladye at
e 181
y North Dore."

NOTE. In this series more than one notice

has occurred of images of our Ladye at the north
door of churches. Thus the celebrated image of
182
Our Ladye of Chatham is believed to have
stood in a niche over the entrance-arch to the
north porch ; and one of the most venerated
images in London was that of Our Ladye of
183
Grace at the north dore of Polles, i.e. St. Pauls.
Here also stood the celebrated Rood of North "

Dore,"
as it is so often called, which, according to
the legend, was believed to have been carved by
184 It was taken down
St.Joseph of Arimathea.
on St. Bartholomew s eve (August 24), 1538, by
Richard Sampson, Dean of St. Paul s and Bishop
185
of Chichester.

remarkable episode
Such a in regard of
an image of our Blessed Ladye "at the North

Door,"
occurs in the fasti of the Church of
England as by law established, for this present
year, 1876, that
I feel I am justified in making
a brief mention of it.
During the months of April and May, some
curious correspondence relating to the restoration
of Bristol Cathedral appeared in the Times. In
the north porch the Restoration Committee had
erected statues or images of the four Doctors,
St. Ambrose, Augustine, St. Gregory, and
St.

St.Jerom; and over the archway, in a niche or

tabernacle, they had, most correctly and properly,

placed an image of our Blessed Ladye, the

Glorious Virgin Marye, Mother of God.
The presence of this image of the Blessed
Mother of God over the north door had a marvel
lous effect upon the Dean. Evidently he feared
181
Transactions of the London and Middlesex Arch. Inst. vol. iv. p. 342.
183
182
See ante, p. II. See ante, p. 70.
184
Life of St. Joseph of Arimathea. Early English Text Society, vol. xliv. p. 44.
IBS vol. i. p. 84.
Wriothesley, Chron. of England,
224 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

its influence upon others, and he caused it to be

destroyed.
Forthwith a correspondence ensued between
the Dean and the architect, Mr. Street, which was
published. Mr. Street, after replying to certain
inquiries of the Dean, asks
"

Is it impossible to :

arrive at a peaceful solution of this difficulty even

now ? I should be only too glad to do anything
to facilitate such an Four days later, Dean
end."

Elliot answers Mr. Street question in a letter, in

s

which he says :
"

I desire very ardently a peaceful

solution of the question, but it must be founded,
as a sine qua non, on the substitution of Scripture
characters for those which have been taken away."
To this Mr. Street replies as follows Dear :
"

Mr. Dean, I will send your letter received this

morning on to the Nave Restoration Committee.
They will probably be better able than I am to
understand your concluding paragraph. I under
stood that you objected to the substitution of a
Scriptural subject for a passage from a story of
St. Augustine, in the niche over the archway, in

which I now suppose I was mistaken, and I am

informed that your agents have destroyed the
figure of the Blessed Virgin, than which it is
difficult to conceive a more Scriptural character.
I suppose they must have done this by mistake, in

which case its restoration will be a very pleasant

task for me." The Dean, in forwarding the
correspondence for publication, expresses his fear
that we are yet far from a peaceful solution of
"

187
the matter."

Under the date of the 25th April, Dean Elliot

sends to the Times portions of a letter addressed
by him to the chairman of the Restoration Com
mittee,
"

explaining the course taken by the Dean

and Chapter." This document is dated Saturday,
1 5th April, 1876. It is only necessary to quote
an extract.

Leaving the correspondence to tell its own

"

tale, Imust now ask your attention to what I am

about to say as to the motives or reasons on
which I founded my objection to the employment
186
The italics are mine. 187
Times, April 19, 1876.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 225

or retention of these figures, as also of that of the

Virgin Mary, in or about the porch, and why I
deprecate any attempt to replace them there.
First of the Virgin Mary.
"

"

I object, because I accept the spirit of the

Act of Edward the Sixth, commanding the removal
of certain images as essentially wise.
I think that at the time of the Reformation
"

they were wisely removed. I think that at this

time there is afloat far too much of the spirit of
the idolatry against which that Act was directed,
to allow its suggestions, if not its positive direc

tions, to be disregarded.
"I
then, to any separate statue or
abject,
effigy of the Virgin Mary being erected in any
part of the cathedral, because I believe its

presence there would be illegal,and if not illegal,

its presence there would in some sort or degree
be supposed to countenance a feeling towards the
Blessed Virgin, growing up in our Church, which
for my part I cannot distinguish from Mariolatry,
and if not from Mariolatry, then not from infidelity
and ingratitude towards that God most merciful,
Who hath given us in His Son, the mediator and
the intercessor, on Whose name only those who
call shall be saved.
"

Next as to the four images which have been

removed.
I object to them certainly not on any motive
"

derived from the Act of Edward the Sixth.

"

I do not know indeed, I do not believe

that images these are idolatrous, or could be
supposed to lead to idolatry, and are therefore
illegal.

"That
porch is illustrated richly, perhaps
beautifully, by figures of all the hierarchy of the
Holy Scriptures of the later Testament. I should
have thought it incongruous that figures of men,
albeit of purest, highest character, should have
been mingled with these."

an astounding opinion that the

It certainly is
Blessed Virgin Marye Mother of God is an
unscriptural character;" and it is utterly incom-
"
226 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

prehensible how any one professing to be a

Christian could venture to express it. Never
theless, it is most gratifying to learn from such

an authority as the Dean of Bristol, that a feeling

of devotion to our Blessed Ladye is beginning to
grow up in the Anglican Church.
Happily Anglicans are not of the Bristol
all

iconoclastic school. On the 3ist of May, 1855,

a distinguished archaeologist, Mr. J. R. Walbran,
F.S.A., London, Newcastle, and Edinburgh, read
a paper before the Yorkshire Architectural Society
assembled at Skipton, on some excavations at
Fountains Abbey. "There was also found," said

Mr. Walbran, large image of the Blessed

"a

Virgin, with her Almighty Infant in her arms,

that had been thrown down from the niche that
it occupied above the great western window,
bearing the date
1494. figures are
of Both
headless, and there is little in the composition
to attract admiration, yet these might be, even

now, not inaptly restored to a position whence

for three centuries they had been ignominiously
deposed ;
that emblem of the great patroness of
the house, to which generations of faith have
directed their eyes with feelings of piety or
188
veneration."

But to return to the North Door.

In the ages of faith the north doors of churches
were generally dedicated to our Blessed Ladye ;
and the reason is given by the celebrated French
archaeologists, Father Cahier and Father Martin.
Le Nord est la region dcs frim as et des orages,
"

c est a dire des passions et de r endurcissement dans

le pccJic ; c est ainsi que Saint Augustin voit revenir
du septcntrion r
enfant prodigue quand il rcprend la
route du toit patcrnel. Les commentaterirs d Ezcchiel
ne partent pas autrement ; et c est aussi pourquoi les

vieux architectes consacraient leportail septentrional

a celle qui cst la Mere de. Miscricorde. est le C
Janal du rctour signalant plages funestes on le les

naingateur imprudent court se briser, c est un cri de

J8
Rtfcrtofthe Associated Architectural Societies, vol. iii.
p. 67.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 227

rappel qu on lui addresse

et une invitation a se Jeter

dans k fort*
All honour, therefore, to Mr. Street for having
revived one of the most interesting and beautiful
features of Catholic architecture. It is a most

hopeful sign for the fnture.

Olde
The chapel of our Ladye called
"the
3.

Ladye of Pewe."

This chapel stood in the north side of the

abbey church, but I have
failed to identify it.
side of a line
The only chapels on the north
drawn from East to West through the centre of
the church, are those (i) of St. Paul, (2) St. John
the St. Erasmus, (4) St. John the
(3)
Baptist,
of the north transept,
Evangelist at the corner
St. Michael, and (6) St. Andrew, on the east
(5)
side of the same transept.
The image of Our Ladye of Pewe or Pue was
one of Our Ladye of Pity, that is, of our Ladye
seated, bearing the dead Body
of her Son on her
knees ;
and it is very probable that a celebrated
in one of these
image of Our Ladye of Pity stood
chapels, which,
in consequence, may have been
called the chapel of Our Ladye of Pue, but which
must not be confounded with the renowned chapel
of Our Ladye of Pue on the south side of
St. Stephen s. This would not be a solitary
instance of giving a second name to a chapel.
So great was the reputation for sanctity which
Mabel, the mother of St. Edmund of Canterbury,
of Abingdon,
bore, that after her burial in the abbey
the in which she was interred was called
chapel
the chapel of St. Edmund s mother.
The only mention I have found of the Old
in the indenture of the foundation
Ladye of Pue is

of the chapel called of Henry the Seventh, which

commences thus
Indenture, made the seconde day of
This
Marche, the xxi th yere of the reigne of the moost
Cristen and moost excellent kyng henry the vii th,
&c.
by the grace of god,"

Tar RR. IT, Cahier et Martin, t. i.

pp. 82, 83.
Melanges d Archeolpgie.
les
228 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

It is provided
that euery of the said ye monkes shall from
"

the date of thees presentes daily while the world

shall endure, except the daies only called Chereth-

mas-day, Goode fryday, the Uigill of Estre, and

the daies of coronations of kinges and quenes of
Englond, dououtlie say their masses in the churche
of the said monasterie at the auter in the chapell
of oure ladie in the Northside of the same churche
called the olde lady of Pewe, unto the tyme of the

chapell of our lady in the same monastic which

the said king our souerayn lorde hath nowe be-
gonne be edified and bilded at the costes and

charges of the same king our soverayne lord or

his executors, and a Tombe made in the same
chapell at the costes and charges of the said
princes or her executors for the interement of her
190
body.

II. St. Margaret s.

The entiy occurs in the church

following
warden s accounts for the year 1545 :

"Paid to Mr. Barnard for the table of the

Concepcion now standing on the high altar,
191
i6/. 10 .r. o</."

In used to express a
"

this instance table

"

is

reredos.
The usual form under which the Conception
of our Blessed Ladye was represented in the West
is designed from the account of the birth of our
Ladye whichis supplied by the
apocryphal gospel
of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, 192 and the
193
proto-gospel of Jacob. It describes St. Anne in
\ her garden at prayer, receiving, by the mouth of
an angel, the promise of the birth of the Blessed
Virgin Marye her daughter, and St. Joachim
receiving the same promise in the mountains,
whither he had retired.
The Guide of Painting of Mount Athos follows
this ancient narration almost word for word.
190
Book of Indentures, &c. Lansdowne MS. 441.
191
Nichols, Illustrations, &c. p. 12.
11)2
Evangelia Apocrypha. Edit. C. Tischendorf. Lipsia, 1853, p. 106.
193
Ibid. p. I.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 229

Conception of the Mother of God;

"The

houses; a garden with various trees; in the

centre, St. Anne at prayer; an angel above
blesses her; outside the garden a mountain,
where St. Joachim is at prayer ; an angel blesses
194
him."

And a similar description is also given in the

poem of the Nun of Gandersheim, Hrotsuitha,
who flourished about the year 999. 195

Chapel of St. Stephen.

III.
In the inventory of the plate belonging to this
chapel at the dissolution, a pendant pix is thus
described :

"

and gilt, iiii angelles

Item, a trinitie of sylver
of sylv. and gilt, and an image of O r Ladye and
the holy-gost beryng the Sacrament of sylver and
r c
gylt hangyng ov the hie aulter of iii xvioz. di."

190
i.e.
3i6^oz.

IV. Chapel of Our Ladye of Pewe.

I find this celebrated chapel described in a

variety ofways from the year 1369 to 1525. Our

Ladye de Pewa ; Capella Beate Marie de la Pew j
Capella de la Pewe; St. Marye in Puwa; Le Pewe;

Our Lady of Piew; St. Marye de Pewa; St. Marye

de la Pewe ; Our Lady of Pue ;
Our Ladye of
Pewe, or Scala ; Our Ladye of the Pewe ; Our
Ladye of Piewe ; Our Ladye of Pyewe ; Our
Ladye of Pew ; and Our Lady of Pwe.
The image was one of Our Ladye of Pity, 197
that is, which represents our Blessed Lady seated,
and bearing our Saviour on her knees, dead, as
He was taken down from the cross. 198 She is
compassionating Him, and at the same time she
isthe object of our pity or compassion; and under
this type or representation and this one only
1

Didron, Manual
194
Iconographie Chretienne, p. 279.
a"

196
Historia Nativitatis laudabilisque conversationis Intactse Dei Genetricis, inter
poemata Hrotsuithse monialis Gandersheimensis. Migne, Patrol. Lot. t. cxxxvii.
coll. 1067, 1068.
186
Transactions of London and Middlesex Arch, lust. vol. iv. p. 373. See also
ante, sub Ludlow, p. 99.
197
Transactions of London and Middlesex Arch, lust, vol iv. p. 373.
198
See ante, p. 29, under the heading of Durham.
230 Old English Devotion to our Blessea Ladye.

is the Blessed Virgin described as Our Ladye

of Pity. 199

Many conjectures have been made as to the

meaning or origin of the name. Some say it was

so called from the four wells or puits which were
near it; viz., one in the Speaker s courtyard,
another at the eastern extremity of New Palace
Yard, a third in Cotton Garden, and the fourth
in the south cloister of St. Stephen s chapel, close
to the entrance of the room now (1807) used as
the Speaker dining-room, but which was
s state

anciently the Chapel of St. Marye in the vaults,

directlyunder the House of Commons. 200 Others
suggest that it may have had some connection
with the gild of Our Ladye of Puy, in London.
Neither of these explanations or derivations
seem well founded. Any one who is acquainted
with old English historical documents knows how
common it is to meet with a combination of
English, French, and Latin, in one sentence.
Thus, e.g., William of Worcester, describing the
length of the chapter-house of St. Edmund s Bury,
gives it as longitudo de le chapter-house; and in
the gild-book of the Gild of Our Ladye of
Walsingham, there is an entry pro novi factioni
de le neiv peyr of orgeyns Hence de Pewa and
de la Pewe are only common variations for Pue.

What, then, is the derivation of Pewe or Puel

Three explanations suggest themselves to me, and
I offer them without venturing to express any
definite opinion myself.
i. In some of the images of Our Ladye of
Pity, the Blessed Virgin is sitting upright; in
others is represented as leaning over and
she
embracing her dead Son almost as if leaning on
His Body. Our Ladye, therefore, qui s appuye sur
son Fils would soon become Our Ladye qui
s appttye, Our Ladye qui puye, Our Ladye of Puye
or Pue. Or, again, it may have had reference to
the seated attitude of Our Ladye. The Latin

ioa jr or fu ]j details see Introduction,

chapter on Iconography.
so
Smith, Antiquities of Westminster, London, 1807, p. 123, seq.
201
Noiwich vol. of Royal Arch. lust. p. 145.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 231

word podium whence the Dutch puyd, puye,

the old French ///j, 204 and the English put or/^rf,
are derived, originally meant in the Latin of the
middle ages anything on which we lean. The
meaning is derived from the podium-^ of the

circus, a word which is used by classical authors.

The general signification is retained in the deri
vative appodiare, in modern French Jappuyer
to support oneself. By an easy transition it

denotes a staff, &c., but this sense of the word

is not retained in English. Another derived
signification is a heap of stones ;
hence it came to
signify a hill or mountain. Le Puy Lawrens and
Le Puy Morin are, in Latin, Podium Lawentii,
Podium Marini. A third sense of podium was
the desk in the stall of a choir, and from signifying
the desk it came to mean the seat generally, and
thence, in process of time, an enclosed seat or
ptte or peiu. The word occurs in Piers
Plouhman.
2. It is by no means improbable that the
image of Our Lady of Pue was a copy of the old
Lady of Pue in Westminster Abbey. From the
203
Podium, a place made without a wall for men to stand and beholde thynges, an
open also a stage, whereon is set candles or bookes {Bibliotheca Eliota, or
galerie,
Eliotes Diet. Lond. 1552).
sou
ftiye, Lieu esleue au marche ou deuant la maison de la ville pour publicr
quelque chose (Sasbout, Diclionaire Flameng-Francoys. 1576).
104
Pieu, a stake (Furetiere. La Haye, 1690).
Diet, universel des mots Francois.

Podium, projectura in summo muro arenam circi vel amphitheatri proxime

! :o

cingente. Quia vero podium arenoe proximum erat, ideo dignissimus is orchestra;
gradus (nam plurium orchestra graduum erat) qui proximus podio fuitque is latior, ;

cum in eo suggestus fuerit Imperatoris ; ac consules, prrctores, aliique, quibus id jus,

sederint in eo, sellis curulibus cum lictoribus, apparitoribus, et magistratus sui pompa.
Sed et in eodem fuit tribunal editoris, et Virginum Vestalium sedes. Dicitur etiam
de quolibet loco porrecto extra domus parietem, instar pulpiti qui aliter dicitur
Manianum (Facciolati).
Podium, baston pour apoier, ou appoieur (Du Cange).
80G
Appodiare, appuyer, s appuyer. In the Roman de Flo ire. MS.
"

L en
amoine un vairon
li

Tos fut coverts d un siglaton

Li Seneschaux i est puie."

Appodiamcntum, appuy (ibid. ).

207 be
In
1458, ^Will. Wintrir.gham wills his body to burled, . . . and an
inscription to be fixed in the wall near his wife s pew Ad sedile 1
vocai Anglice pewe
(Gough, Sepulch. Moniini. vol. ii. p. 17 1 )-
:u3
Among wives and wcdewes ich r,m )wored sate vparroked in pewes.
Passus vii. p. 95, ed. \Vhitaker, Lond. 1813.
232 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

foregoing evidence, it seems very likely that the

image in the Abbey was placed on a large
bracket or stand, like the image of Our Ladye
of Pity in the church in Farm Street, or perhaps
on a platform approached by steps, like an altar.
This would account for the name.
3. Pity or Pitie, contracted, in old English
becomes ptie and those who are acquainted with
t

the manner of writing in those days well know

that it
only required a careless scribe, or the
omission of the cross stroke of the t, to make
ptie into pur,
have found no record of the date of the
I

building of this chapel, or by whom it was

founded. That of St. Stephen s was built by
King Stephen, and rebuilt by Edward the Third.
The exact position of Our Ladye of Pue has not
been ascertained, but it was not far from the
chapel of St. Stephen s, if indeed it did not join it.

During the reign of Richard the Second, a

dispute as to jurisdiction arose between the Abbot
of Westminster and the Dean of St. Stephen s,
and an appeal on the subject was made to Rome.
A composition was entered into between them by
which it was agreed, in primis, that the chapel of
St. Stephen, and the chapel of the Blessed Virgin

Marye sub rotta, and their respective vestibules,

above and below, and the little chapel contiguous
to the said chapel of St. Stephen on the south
side, and the chapter-house, and the chapel de la

Pewe, and the houses or places occupied by

thirty-eight persons who serve God in the said

chapel of Stephen s, &c., be exempt from the

St.
209
jurisdiction of the said Abbot.
Smith quotes from the ceremonial for creating
the Duke of York a Knight of the Bath in 1394,
in which it is said of the knights then to be

created, that they took their way secretly by our

Ladye of Pieu through St. Stephen s Chapel on to
the "

steyr-foote of the ster chamber end." From

this it would certainly appear that the chapel of
Our Lady of Pue was on the south side of
St. Stephen s Chapel.
srou
k Westminster Muniments, at Westminster, parcel. 23, pt. 3.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 233

On the night of the 7th February, 1393, some

enemies of God, members of the devil and thieves,
broke into the chapel of Blessed Mary de la Pew
at Westminster, and carried off many jewels and
treasures from it. Shortly afterwards some of
them were taken at Oxford, and the plunder was
recovered. 210 Smith cites a Patent of the 6 March,
1 6 Richard the Second, i.e., the same year, by
which the King grants to the Dean and Canons
of his free chapel at Westminster the restitution of
the jewels, ornaments, and other ecclesiastical
goods, which had lately been stolen out of the
King s closet of St. Marye de la Pezve, near the

aforesaid chapel, and for that reason forfeited to

the King. 211 I give this Patent on the authority
of Smith, for I have had a search made for it
among the Patent Rolls in the Public Record
Office, and it cannot be found. This I much
regret, because, if Smith quotes it correctly, the
term
"

King s closet being applied to the chapel

"

of Our Ladye of Pue, would warrant the belief

that it adjoined St. Stephen s, and formed what
would now be called the Royal Tribune or Pew,
and opening or communicating with the Royal
Chapel of St. Stephen s, and thus the image would
be called Our Ladye of the King s Pue, Our
Ladye of the Pue. It is impossible, however, to
form a decided opinion without seeing the exact
words of the Patent, and Smith does not say
whether he saw the original himself, or took it

on the authority of some other writer. 212

Newcourt mentions that, on the 2Qlh Septem
ber, 1369, King Edward the Third gave to John
Bulwick out of his exchequer ten marks yearly, to
celebrate Mass every day before the image of Our

Ladye the Blessed Virgin Marye, in this chapel of

Life of Richard II. By a Monk of Evesham. Ed. Ilearne. Lond. 1729, p. 125.
210

211
Antiquities of Westminster. London, 1807, pp. 123, seq.
213
Cf. Ward.
Kirks thus prepar d for Common Pray
"

r,

In new-erected closets there

They sit em down ;
I mean in Pews,
As close as Hawks are penn d in Mews "

(England** Reformation. Lond. 1719. Canto i.

p. 98),
234 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Our Ladye, near to the King s chapel of

213
St. Stephen, Westminster.
In 1381 Richard the Second went to pray in
this chapel before setting out to meet the rebels
under Wat Tyler at Smithfield. Froissart con
founds the chapel of Our Ladye of Pue with one
in Westminster Abbey, unless he was alluding to
the chapel of the old Ladye of Pue in the north
side of the Abbey church ; but anyhow, Lord
Berners changes the text in his translation, and
construes en cells eglise,
"besyde the churche"

i.e., near to, or hard by.

"The
Corpus Christi, 15 June),
Saturday (after
the Kynge departed the Warderobe in the
fro

Royall, and went to Westmynster and harde

masse in the churche there and all his lordes
with hym and besyde the churche there was a
;

lytel chapell, with an image of our lady, which

did great miracles, and in whom the Kynges of
Englande had ever great truste and confydence.
The Kynge made his orisons before this image
and dyd there his offeryng and then he lepte on ;

his horse and all his lordes, and so the Kyng rode
214
towarde London."

Smith mentions a foundation of five shillings

yearly, which was made in 1411 for an anniversary
for John Ware, late a Canon of St. Stephen s, and
directed to be applied for the maintenance of a
silver lamp before the image of St. Marye in Pewa

every day in the year, from the first opening of

213
Repertorittm, v. i. p. 722, giving the ref. "Rot. Pat. 43 Edvv. III. p. 2,"
but
this ref. cannot be found. It is rather vague, but the roll has been well searched.
214
Chronicles. Lord Berner
s translation,
reprint. London, 1812, v. i. cap. 384,
p. 649.
"

Le Samedi au matin
se departyt le Roy d Angleterre de la Garderobbe la
Royne (qui sied en la Riolle) et s en vint a Westmontier & ouyt Messe en 1 Eglise &
tons les Seigneurs avec luy. En celle eglise a vn image de Nostre Dame en vne petite
chapelle de grans miracles &
:
qui fait de grans vertus, et a laquelle [another version
has en laquelle] Roys d Angleterre ont tousiours eu grand confiance et creance.
les
La fit le Roy ses oraisons deuant ceste image & s offrit a elle et puis monta a cheval :

et aussi tous les Barons qui la

estoyent delez luy, et pouuoit estre enuiron heure de
"

tierce (Plistoire et Croniqre de Messire fehan Froissart. Reueu corrigt sus diners
&>

les bans Atitetirs far Denis

Exemplaires d~>
suynant Sawage de Fontenailles en Brie.
Historiographe die Trescrestien Roy Henri II*- de ce noin. A. Lyon par Ian de Tovmes.

Imprimevr du Roy, 1559, torn. ii. p. 141). Buchon s edition gives the same almost
word for word, liv. ii. c. 135, t. 8, p. 49. Paris, 1824.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 235

the chapel in the morning to its closing late in

the evening. 215
In 1452 this chapel and the celebrated image
of our Blessed Ladye were consumed by fire. Stow
says "Amongst other things
of this chapel I
have read that, on the 17 February, 1452, by
his school
negligence of a scholar appointed by
master to put forth the lights of this chapel, the
image of Our Ladye, richly decked with jewels,
precious stones, pearls, and rings more than any
jeweller could judge the price for was, with all

this apparel, ornaments, and the chapel itself,

but since re-edified by Anthonie, Earl

burnt,
210
Rivers, and Lord Scales."

Some years, however, must have elapsed before

the chapel of Our Ladye of Pue was rebuilt, for at
this time Antony Widvile was only ten years old,
he having been born in 1442. And whilst the
sub
chapel remained in ruins, that of Our Ladye
volta seems to have been used, because, on the
1 9th July, 1453, Bishop Lyndwoode
made a
foundation for a chauntry in the chapel of
St. Marye de Pewa, the chauntry being described
as infra bassam capdle S. Stcphani Westm.
It is also said that Earl Rivers obtained for
at Rome,
this chapel the Pardon of the Scala Cceli
and in 1480 the chapel is described as Our Ladye
of Pewe or Scala.
In the description of the reception of Louis
de Gruthuyse in England in 1472, it is mentioned
the said Lord went into a chamber by Our
"

that

Ladye of Pue, and put upon him the habiliments

of an Erie. 218
The unfortunate Antony Widvile, Earl Rivers,
when a prisoner in Pontefract Castle, and expect
his heart to
ing his untimely death, bequeathed
219
Our Ladye of Pue, as I have already mentioned.
In 1498, Anne Lady Scrope, widow of John
Lord Scrope of Bolton, by her will, dated
215
Antiq. of Westminster, I.e.
216
Bk. vi. p. 2, ed. Strype.
217 Rot. Pat. 32, Hen. VI. m. 4. This patent has been found.
218 v. xxvi. p. 281.
Archaologia,
219
See ante, p. 128.
236 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

28th August, 1498, left one decade of her great

beads of gold to Our Ladye of Pue. 220
Our Ladye of Pue was a most favourite chapel
for the celebration of Masses of Requiem. Smith
quotes a deed of foundation for an anniversary for
Richard Green and his parents and relations,
dated the 28th July, 1480, in which it stated, is

as a reason for choosing that sanctuary, that it was

a spot of great devotion, by the frequent attesta
tion of miracles, abounding in indulgences, as well
for the benefit of the living as for the relief of the

departed, and particularly the indulgence de Scala

Dei, otherwise de Scala Ctxli.
The church of S. Maria de Scala, at Rome was
one of the three at the Three Fountains, or Aquce
Salrice, beyond St. Paul s without the Walls. It
was so called because it is said that one day, when
St. Bernard was celebrating Mass in it, he beheld

a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, by which

were ascending to eternal glory the souls of those
for whom he was offering the Holy Sacrifice. 221

Antony Widvile, Earl Rivers, by his will,

desires that they who succeed to the lands of his
first wife shall devote five hundred marks for

sundry purposes, one of which was to find a

one year at Our Lady of Pue, to pray
priest for
for the souls of his brothers and all Christian
souls. 222
The will of Elizabeth Uvedale, dated i4th
October, 1487, contains the following legacy.
"Item. To a devoute prieste x/. to sing Seint
Gregories trentalle at Our Ladye of Pewe, or
Scala, which if it not be doone by my life, then
carge you my said Ex
ors
I that it be doone as
soon as I am deceased, as ye will answer afore
223
God."

On the gth of May, 1494, Henry the Seventh

offered 2 at Our Ladye of the Pewe, 224 and on
the 1 4th July there occurs this entry

2=
Test. Ebor. v. iv. p. 153.
221
Migne, Diet, des Pelerinages religieux, t. ii. col. 811.
2M Test. Vet. p. 379.
223
Surrey Archaol. Collections, v. iii. pp. 169, 170.
224
Privy Purse Expenses. Excerpt. Historica, p. 98.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 237

my lady the Kinge s Moder for the wages

"To

of John Bracy singing before Our Ladye of

Sir
the pewe, for a quarter s wages, 2."**

Several tiffin fifgf of Elizabeth of York are

recorded.
1502. March 24.
"

"

Offering to Our Lady of Piewe, iir. vui 32*

"June 14.
"///., to John Hamerton for money by him
delivered to the Queue for ms offiring at hire

departing from West* to Our Ladye of Piewe and

to Bowe, vu. buiar
"///., (same dayX to Thomas Sporley, for

money by him delivered for thoflring of the Quene

to Oure Lady of Piewe, ****
"Decembers.

"///., for thoffering

of the Quene to Onre
Lady of Pyewe upon thevyn of die Concepcon of
Our Lady, vu. vmV.
"//*., for thoffering of the Quene upon
the

day of die Concepcon of Oure Lady, TA*"

"December 13.

"7/OT., for thoffering of die Quene to Oure

Lady of Pyewe at hure departing from West-

minstre to the Towre, TIX. viii/.
u
Itm., to a monk that brought Oar Lady
gyrdelle to the Quene in rewarde, vir. yinUL"

There are many lecoris of Maiic being

^ifjpat^ Ladye of Pewe. at OUT
In the hflmdMld account* of Elizabeth of
York:
"February 26, 1503.
"Itftn, to Sir Robert Byrche singing at our
wam
Ladye of Piewe, vi/. xiiij. iiij<

In the King s book of pjymeals there are

many such items.

1511. January (no date) apparently die ist

"

Exarft. Ostorica, p. 99.

** Poise Expenses, p. 3.
PriTjr
^ ffid.
p. 21.

JKJ. p. 77-
^Kp. 78u
* P. 102,
238 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

"To Dr. Rawson, for 42 priests singing at

our Ladye of Piewe on All Souls Day, 8^. each. 232
"1512. January.
Dr. Rawson. Masses at our Ladye of Pewe
"

on All Souls Day, 233

32j.
"

. December 5 12.
"

To Dr. Rawson, for Masses at our Ladye of

Pewe on All Souls Day, 43 j. 234

"1515. February. The King at Greenwich.

Rawson, for 25 priests singing 25 Masses
"Dr.

before our Ladye of Pewe on All Souls Day,

i6s. 8^. 235

January.
"1516.The King at Greenwich.
Dr. Rawson, for 49 priests at our Ladye of
"

236
Pewe, 8//. each.
"1519. January.
Rawson, for Masses said
"To Dr. at our
237
Ladye of Pewe, 157. 14 s. 3//.
December.
"

"To Dr. Rawson, for 54 priests singing for

the King at our Ladye of Piew on All Souls
23S
Day, each 8</."

Such was the early piety of King Henry the

Eighth.
On the 5th July, 1508, the Duke of Buckingham
offered $s. 4^. to our Ladye of Pewe; 239 in June,

1514, on the morrow after Ascension Day, Henry

the Eighth offered IDS. ; 240 on the 3ist January,
1519, Henry Courtenay, Earl of Devon offered
241
4//. ;
and in the expenses of the journey of the
Earl of Cumberland, newly created, from Skipton
to London, amongst the almonses and offerands
is mentioned one of is. vihV. to our Ladye of
Pewe. 242
A visit to our Ladye of Pewe was included
in the ceremonies attendant on the creation of
serjeants-at-law, which occupied several days; thus

232
Letters and Papers, &c., Henry VIII. v. ii.
pt. ii.
p. 1449.
233 234 - 35
Ibid. p. 1454. Ibid. p. 1458. Ibid. p. 1466.
236 237
Ibid. p. 1469. Ibid. p. 1533. Ibid. p. 1538.
239
Letters and Papers, &c., Henry VIII. v. iii.
pt. i.
p. 497.
240 241
Ibid. v. ii.
p. ii.
p. 1464. Ibid. v. iii. pt. i. p. 51.
242
Whitaker, Hist, and Antiq. of the Deanery of Craven. London, 1805: p. 232,
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 239

in Trinity Term in the thirteenth of Henry VIII.

1521 Dugdale says that
"Vpon Tewesday the said new Serjeants goo
ageyn in sober maner to Westminster with the
said Warden and the Marchall, and
of the Flete

odyr offycers affore them, and their servaunts

after them in their lyveries
;
and goo thorough
Westminster-Hall onto ower Lady of Pewe." 243

WESTON, SUFFOLK. This church formerly possessed a celebrated

image of our Blessed Ladye. Here in the tower
is a Gabriel bell inscribed
244
"

MISSUS VERO PIE GABRIEL FERT LETA MARIE."

WHITBY ABBEY. In 1461 Dame Catherine Pease, of Whitby,

by her will, proved the 24th February, ordered
her sepulture at the place where our Ladye s Mass
was daily sung. 245

WILLESDEN. A
very ancient pilgrimage ; and our Ladye
of Willesden is often mentioned.
In the expenses of Elizabeth of York :

"March 24, 1502.

"Offering to oure Ladye ofWillesdone \}s. \ \d.
24G
"February 26, 1503.

Item, to a man that

went on pilgremage to
"

our Ladye of Willesden by the Quene s command

247
ment, iijj-. iiijfl
.

"In
1517 William Lychefelde, clerk, desires
to be buried in the parish church at Willesden
before the image of the Blessed Virgine. 248

WINCHESTER. Our Ladye of Winchester is described by

Guppenberg as Speciosa, and he a story
relates
on the authority of Gonon reference not given
who says he had read it in an ancient MS. ;
but it is needless to give it, since it has no his

torical interest. 249

The celebrated image of our Ladye of Win
chester stood against the fifth pillar on the south

sis xliv. p.
Originesjuridicales. London, 1671. Cap. 114.
244 S45
Suckling, v. i.
99. Burton, Monasticon Eboracense, p. 82.
246
p. 3.
24a
247

Atlas Marianus,
Jbi(}f
p- 96.
248
Test>

n. dclxxxiii. p. 744.
Vet p> ^
240 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

side of the nave of the church, and an altar was

erected before it. Great was the popular devotion
to it ;
and many votive offerings adorned the
pillars. Conspicuous amongst
the numerous clients
of our Lady was William of VVykeham, who con
stantly came to pray before this image ; and before
which he was buried. Speaking of the beautiful
Wykeham chantry, his Protestant biographer,
Dr. Louth, says that it was not well chosen in
in regard of the building, "but Wykeham was
determined to the choice of this peculiar place
by a consideration of a very different kind by
an early prejudice and a strong religious impres
sion which had been stamped on his mind from
his childhood. In this part of the old church
there had been an altar dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin with the image standing above it. At this
altar a Mass used to be celebrated every morning,
which seems to have been a favourite one and
much frequented when Wykeham was a boy and
at School at Winchester;
for it had gotten a

peculiar name among

the people, and was called
the Pekis-Masse, from the name of a monk of the
convent who usually officiated in it.
Young Wyke
ham was constant in his daily attendance and fer

vent in his devotions at this Mass. He seems

even then to have chosen the Blessed Virgin as his
peculiar Patroness, to have placed himself under
her protection, and in a manner to have dedicated
himself to her service ;
and probably he might
ever after imagine himself indebted to her especial
favour for the various successes which he was
blessed with through his life. This seems to have
been the reason of his dedicating to her his two
colleges, and calling them by her name, over all

the principal gates of which he has been careful

to have himself represented as her votary in the
act of adoration to the Blessed Virgin as his and
their common guardian ;
and this it was that
determined this situation of his chantry. He
erected chapel in the very place where he
his
had been used to perform his daily devotions in
hisyounger days between the two pillars against
one of which stood the altar above-mentioned.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 241

He dedicated the chapel to the Blessed Virgin.

altar was continued in the same place
as
The
before, and probably the very same image was
erected above it, which, with the other ornaments
of the same kind, both within the chapel and
the
without, was destroyed in the last century by
modern enthusiasm, exerting itself with
a
zeal of
blind and indiscreet rage against all the venerable

and beautiful ornaments, whether of ancient piety

250
or superstition !"

In consideration of the benefactions made by

the Bishop, of about twenty marks, and for having
rebuilt their and his cathedral, the Prior
and
Convent engaged, by deed dated i6th August,
for the health of
1404, to have sundry services
his soul and the souls of his parents and bene
factors, inter alia, three Masses daily in the chapel
where he was buried, the first being the Marye
Mass. They also engage that the charity boys
of the Prior shall, every night for ever, sing at
the said chapel, in honour of the Blessed Virgin
or Are JRegina,
Marye, the anthem Salve Rcgina,
and the De profundis.
The Ladye Chapel at Winchester contains

some interesting paintings illustrative of

mural
miracles of our Blessed Ladye, the procession at
Rome, and St. carrying the picture of
Gregory
our Ladye ascribed to St. Luke, the painter saved
from a fall, and many others. They were painted
in the time of Prior Silkstede, A.D. 1498 1524.

II. THE COLLEGE.

William of Wykeham built the College here,
which he dedicated to our Blessed Ladye, whose
statue yet stands in a niche over the principal

gate, and on one side he is represented on his

as at Oxford, over the gate of New
knees,
252
College.
Until recently the old Catholic custom was
observed by the scholars, who used to take off-
253
their caps as they passed our Ladye.
250
Louth, Life of William of Wykeham. Oxford, 1777, p. 355-
251
Ibid. p. 259.
253
See ante, p. 125.
Kindly communicated to me by an old \Vintonian.

Q
242 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

An
antiphon of our Ladye was sung in the
evening, until the time of Edward the Sixth,
whose commissioners forbade it, saying, Let the
"

scholars and children henceforth omit to sing or

such like
say Stella Cceli, or Salve Regi/ia, or any
254
untrue or superstitious anthem.
Henry the Sixth founded his public school at
Eton and his college at Cambridge entirely upon
Wykeham s plan, whose statutes he transcribed
without any material alteration. 255 Those which
bear upon devotion to our Blessed Ladye I have
given in the Introduction.

III. THE CASTLE.

The Liberate Rolls contain several mandates of
Henry the Third.
In 1238 the King orders the Sheriff of South
ampton to make a Mariola, i.e. an image of our
Ladye, with a great tabernacle for the chapel of
our aforesaid Queen, and a certain painted tablet
to be placed before the altar of the same chapel.
Writ tested at Woodstock, i4th November. 256
In 1247 the sheriff of Southampton is ordered
to cause to be painted in the King s chapel over
the altar, the image of St. Marye ; and towards
the south in the same chapel the image of God
and His Mother.
Writ tested at Winchester, 28th December. 2 7
In 1252 the sheriff of Southampton is ordered
to cause an image of the Blessed Virgin Marye
with her Child to be made on the front of the

chapel of St. Thomas in Winchester Castle.

Writ tested at Winchester, 28th December. 258
And in 1266 the constable of Winchester
Castle is and
ordered ... to paint all the doors
windows of the King s hall and chamber with his
arms ; to make a certain window of .white glass,
and to cause the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
Marye to be painted in it.

259
Writ tested at Westminster, nth February.

255
554
\Valcott, Hist, of W. of Wykeham and his Colleges, p. 152. Luuth, p. iSo.
206
Lib. Roll. 23 Henry III.
M7 258
Ibid. 32 Hen. III. Ibid. 37 Henry III.
25
Ibid. 50 Hen. III.
<>
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladyc. 243

IV. THE CARMELITES.

The church and convent of the Carmelites
stood in a close called College Mead, opposite
the Church of St. Michael. It was dedicated

to the Blessed Virgin, and founded by Peter,

who is called the parish priest of St. Helen s,
Winchester. 200

I now resume the narrative of Father Svvan-

yngton, which broke oft under the heading of

Newenham. 261
"On the i yth of the kalends of August
(i.e., July 1
6), as the aforesaid blessed Simon,
with myself as his companion, was journeying to
Winchester to obtain letters commendatory 202 for
our Lord Pope Innocent the Fourth from the
Bishop of Winchester, who was favourable to our
Order, the Dean of the Church of St. Helen s of
-Winchester, Peter
driving at full de Lynton,
speed, met us, and implored the blessed Father
that he would hasten to assist his brother who
was dying His name was
in a state of despair.
Walter. He
had no shame in committing dis
honest actions he was quarrelsome, and addicted
;

to ungodly magic ;
he despised the sacraments,
and harassed his neighbours. One day, quarrel
ling with another man of noble birth, he was
mortally wounded by him, and seeing himself
already cited before the Divine Judgment, and the
devil putting all the crimes which he had com
mitted before his eyes, he refused to hear either
God or the sacraments spoken of; but blasphem
ing, as long as he had utterance, he yelled out
O devil, avenge me on my slayer. On entering
the house we found the man foaming at the
mouth, gnashing his teeth and rolling his eyes
like amad dog. Blessed Father Simon, making
the sign of the Cross, and throwing the Scapular

(habitus} over the sick man, raised his eyes

and
prayed for a token from God that what Christ had
ransomed should not become the prey of the

2(i
Milner, History </ Winchester, vol. ii.
p. 139; Mon. Angt, t. vi. p. 1570.
2fil
See ante, p. 106.
2li -
Ad impetranditm fo>
matas. See Ducange for all details about this word.
244 OM English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

devil ;
and all of a sudden the sick man, who was
dying, recovered his strength and reason and
speech, and signing himself with the sign of
salvation, rebuked the demons, and with moans
and tears cried out : Alas ! wretch that I am !

how I shake at my eternal damnation !

my iniqui
ties have grown above the sands of the sea ; have
mercy on me, O God, Whose mercy exceeds Thy
justice O Father help me ; I wish to make
! !

my confession. When I had withdrawn into a

corner of the house, the aforesaid Dean Peter
told me seeing the impenitent heart of his
that,

brother, he prayed alone in his room, and forth

with this voice reached him Arise, Peter, seek :

my beloved servant Simon, who is on his way

coming to this place/ And looking around to
see whence these words proceeded, the voice
sounded a second and a Whereforethird time.

prudently believing that this was a voice from

heaven, he hurried off for his horse, so that he
might intercept the venerable Father on his
journey; and returned thanks for finding him so
opportunely. After his confession Walter publicly
renounced the devil, and received the sacraments
of the Church, evincing signs of great repentance.
He made his will, and having received his
brother s assurance on oath that he would carry
out his intentions, he desired that the ill-gotten
goods should be restored, and that reparation for
the injuries he had committed should be made.
About the eighth hour of night he peacefully
breathed forth his soul, which appeared to his
brother, who was in doubts of his salvation,
signifying that all was well with him, and that
through the most powerful Queen of Angels, by
the scapular (Jiabitus) of the blessed man as if by
a shield, he had escaped the snares of the demons.
"The fame of this event flew through the
whole city. Forthwith the said Peter de Lynton
went to the venerable Bishop of Winchester, and
committing every detail in due ord^r to writing,
desired to know his opinion in such an extra
ordinary circumstance. The Lord Bishop was
amazed, and having consulted thereon with his
 Old English Dmotion to our Blessed La dye. 245

Chapter, it was determined that the Blessed

Simon should be interrogated as to the virtue
of the scapular (habitus}. He appeared before
the Lord Bishop, and in obedience to his orders,
concealed nothing, and the Lord Bishop desired
that everything should be committed to writing
under an authentic seal.

The
aforesaid Peter the dean, in thanksgiving
"

for the miracle wrought by the glorious Virgin

Marye on his brother, made a foundation for our

Brothers in Winchester, giving them ground, and
building a very commodious and spacious convent
for the Order. The account of this event was
spread throughout England and abroad ;
and
many cities offered us dwelling-places ;
and many
of high rank begged to be affiliated to this holy
Order, desiring in order to participate in its graces
to die with the scapular (habitus), so that by the
merits of the glorious Virgin Marye they might
have a happy departure out of this life. Thus by
degrees did the Order of the Blessed Virgin Marye
of Mount Carmel, under the favour of our Lord

Jesus Christ, and Marye His Blessed Mother,

begin, in the West, to be multiplied into many
provinces, and the provinces to have many houses,
and these convents to have communities which
bore great fruit to the augmentation of the
203
Catholic faith."

NOTE. This narrative of Father Swanyngton

will raise an objection, which I will therefore
anticipate. He is very precise in his dates the :

vision occurred at Newenham before daybreak on

the morrowof the Division of the Apostles, i.e.,
the 6th July. 264 and according to the narrative
1

St. Simon Stock and Father Swanyngton arrived

at Winchester on the evening of the lyth of the
kalends of August, i.e., the :6th of July, or the
same day. Now
Simon was in his ninety-first
St.

year, and Winchester is one hundred and thirteen

miles distant from Newenham, or Cambridge, as
the bird flies, and in the time of Wykeham the
road between London and Winchester was not
6y I64
Sfeaihtm Cannelitanum, t. i.
p. 519, nn. 2078, 2079. See ante, p. 1 06.
246 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

in a good condition, 205 consequently it is very

unlikely that it was in a more satisfactory state
t\vo centuries previously. In the narration there
is no allusion to
any supernatural manifestation,
i.e., as of bi-location, and it would have been a

physical impossibility in the thirteenth century for

t\vo White Friars to have ridden one hundred and
thirteen miles in- their habits, within sixteen, or
at most eighteen hours, presuming, of course, that
they did ride, for it seems by the narration that
they must have journeyed on foot. Hence it
appears most probable that there is a mistake in
the date assigned for the arrival of St. Simon
Stock at Winchester.
The learned author of the Speculum Carmeli-
tannm suggests another solution of the difficulty,
saying :

"It should be noticed that from the context

of the narration this miracle appears to have been

wrought upon the man Walter, not at Winchester,

but in some place between Cambridge and
Winchester, as the distance between the two
260
cities would suggest."

WINDHAM,WYNDHAM, Here was a gild of our Ladye at her altar,

orWvMUNDHAM. which gild kept a light, called Our Ladye s Light,
before her image in her chapel. 2cr
Here was also a Light of Jesus. Harpsfeld
mentions some miracles wrought at this sanc
208
tuary.
William, twenty-second abbot of St. Albans,
A.D. 1214 1235, sent a beautifully-illuminated
psalter of great .price to the Church of St. Marye s,
Wymondham, to be chained to a desk which was
placed before the high altar and the image of
our Ladye which stood over it, so that it might
remind the monks who used it to remember the
209
donor in their prayers.

WINDSOR. Although the chapel at Windsor is called that

of St. George, it was in reality dedicated to the

263
Louth, nt supra, p. 272.
~
~ GG
"

6 2G8
Vol. Blomeficld, vol. i. p. 735. S?ec. xv. c. 18.
i. 520.
p.
2GU Mon. Rolls Edit.
Gest. Abb. S. Albani, vol. i.
p. 294.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladyc.
247
honour of our Blessed
Ladye, St. George, and
St.Edward, King and Confessor. The foundation
deed of Edward the Third, dated the 6th of
August in the twenty-second
year of his reign,
evinces great devotion to the Blessed Virgin
270
Marye.
In this chapel there were several
images of
our Blessed Ladye.
i. The Little Image of our Ladye.
In the
inventory of the Treasury taken in the
eighth year of Richard the Second,
13841385,
Walter Almaly being then the custos, there are
Sir

enumerated four lilies which are

wanting in the
crown of the little image of the Blessed
Virgin
Marye. There were also three crowns of silver
gilt, adorned with divers precious
stones, one of
which was for our Ladye, another for her Divine
Son, and the third for St. Edward. Five stones
were wanting in the crown of our
Ladye, and a
flower of delicate
workmanship in that of our
Lord. 271
2. The image
given by Henry the Fourth.
This
described as being made of silver and
is

in her right arm our

gilt Ladye bears her Divine
:

Son, Who is playing with a bird. 27 -

The following entry occurs in the Issue Rolls
of the Exchequer,
Michaelmas, the sixth of Henry
the Sixth, November n,
1427 :

"To our lord the King in his chamber. In

money paid to the same chamber by the hands
of ConusMelver, goldsmith, for the value of
20 31^ oz. of silver in mass, purchased for
Ibs.

repairing an image of the Blessed for the Marye

King Chapel of St. George
s in Windsor Castle,
price the pound, 30,$-., 3o/. 8.r. 4^."
273

3. The silver image given by Henry the

Sixth.
Issue Rolls of the
Exchequer, March n, 1428.
"To our lord the King in his chamber. In
money paid to the same chamber by the hands
of Conus Melver, goldsmith, for
making a certain
"

Rot. Pat. 22 Edward III., p. 2. m. 6 ; Man. Angl. v vi.

.
pp. 13511356.
71
Mon. Anol. vol. vi. p. 1367. m /^ p> I;j64>
273
Issue Rolls of
Exchequer, p. 357.
248 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

image of the Blessed Virgin Marye for St. George s

within the King s Castle of Windsor, 307. o,r. 274
o^."

4. Our Ladye behind the high altar.

This is mentioned by Foxe. Speaking of one
Robert Testwood, a chorister in the Royal Chapel
at Windsor, he says :

It chanced Testwood one day to walk in

"

the church, at afternoon, and to behold the

pilgrims, especially of Devonshire and Cornwall,
how they came by plumps, with candles and
images of wax in their hands, to offer to good
275
King Henry of Windsor."
Testwood spoke to a group of them against
pilgrimage, &c.
"Then he went further and found another
sort licking and kissing a White Lady made of
alabaster, which image was mortised in a wall
behind the high altar, and bordered about with
a pretty border, which was made like branches,
with hanging apples and flowers. And when
he saw them so superstitiously use the image as
to wipe their hands upon it, and then to stroke
them over their eyes and faces, as though there
had been great virtue in touching the picture,
he up with his hand, in which he had a key, and
smote down a piece of the border about the
image, and with the glance of the stroke chanced
to break off the image s nose. Lo, good people !

quoth he, you see what it is nothing but earth

and dust, and cannot help itself; and how then
will it help you? For God s sake, brethren, be
no more deceived. And so he gat him home to
his house, for the rumour was so great, that many
came to see the image how it was defaced." 27G
This sacrilegious wretch lost his life under
Henry the Eighth, for denying the Real Presence.
Our Ladye of Windsor is mentioned in the
household book of Elizabeth of York.
March 24, 1502.
///., delivered to Sir William Barton preest
for thofferinges of the Quene to our Ladye and
274 Issue Rolls of Exchequer, p. 358.
275
Henry VI.
*.<.,

276
Book of Martyrs. Edit. Cattley, vol. v. p. 467. London, 1838.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 249

St. George at Wyndesoure and to the holy crosse

277
there. ii.r. vid .

WIN FARTHING, Nathaniel Hallyet was a benefactor, who, at

NORFOLK. the same time, founded a light before Our Ladye
of Peace, to the value of 2s., for which he tied
278
a close called Cokkys close.

WOOLPIT. Is mentioned in the Atlas Marianus.

The church is described as one of the most

interesting in Suffolk. One of the choir seats in

the chancel has an elegant figure of our Ladye
with the pot of lilies by her side.
i. Our Ladye of Woolpit appears to have been

an image of repute in the county and much

It was situated in the
frequented by pilgrims.
chapel of our Ladye at the end of the south aisle,
and stood under a rich canopy or tabernacle,
which appears, from the will of John Stevynesson,
to have been newly made in 1451. In 1469,

Geoffrey Coley bequeathed one wax candle, of a

half weight, to burn during Divine
pound and a
Service. In the will of Robert Agas, of Thurston,

our Ladye of Woolpit is enumerated as one of

the seven local pilgrimages which he directed
his son to "go or do gon." In 1507, John
Calabour bequeathed to oure Ladye ofWolpitte
a gold rynge. 279
In 1474, Dame Elizabeth Andrews leaves
one of her two diamond rings to our Ladye of
280
Woolpit.
2. Our Ladye of Pity.
In church was also an image of Our
this

Ladye of Pity. In 1477, Amy Fen bequeathed

to the painting of Our Ladye of Pyte in this

church, 2os. and 20^., and two bushels

of malt.
281
It is not known where this image was situated.

In connection with our Ladye of Woolpit, it

may be mentioned that in a meadow near the
church is a far-famed well, called LadyeVwell,
278
277 p 2. p. 120.
Blomefield, vol. i.

2
"

vol. ii. p. 196.

Proceedings of Suffolk Archaeological Institute,
180
Test. Vet. 329.
251 vol. ii.
p. 199.
Proceedings of Suffolk Archaeological Institute,
250 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

which was the continued resort of pilgrims in

former ages. A chapel is said to have formerly
existed nearthis spring, but no
vestiges of it
remain. 285
In the household book of Elizabeth of York,
on the 24th March, 1502, there is an offering to
Our Ladye of Wolpitte of xx^/."
83

WOODBRIDGE, There was an image of our Blessed Ladye in

SUFFOLK. the wall churchyard, much fre
of the Priory
quented for the miraculous powers it possessed.
The Priory was dedicated to our Blessed Ladye. 2 * 4

WOODSTOCK. "The
King to Walter de Tywe, keeper of the
Manor of Woodstock. We command you . . .

to make a certain cross with

Marye and John,
and a certain image of Saint Marye to be placed
in the aforesaid new chapel."

Writ tested at Woodstock, loth September,

In 1251, John de Haneburg is commanded to

crenelate the Queen s chapel at Woodstock . . .

and to make a seat in the

chapel for Queen s

her use ; and to cause the image of the Blessed

Virgin near the same seat to be better painted.
Writ tested at Woodstock, 3rd February. 280

In the following year the King commands the

wardens of his works at Woodstock to make a
window with an image of
glass the Blessed Virgin
Marye in the new chapel.
"

Writ tested at Woodstock, 28

ist
February.
And in the month of August of the same year
the keepers of the King s manor at Woodstock
are ordered to put a tablet painted with the figure
of the Blessed Virgin Marye in the chapel of
St.Edward.
Writ tested at Woodstock, 291)1 August. 288
In 1256 orders are given to repair the
chimney
of the Queen s inner wardrobe at Woodstock
;

32 S83
Proceedings of the Suffolk Archccological Institute, vol. ii. p. 199. P. 3.
284
Ind. Man. Diccc. Norv. p. 117 ; Mon. Angi. vol. vi. 600. p.
888 2S6 -^ jbi^
Lib. Rolls, 23 Hen. III. Ibid.
sss
35 Hen. III. ^ Hen> IIIf
Rid,
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 251

and to buy a certain image of the Blessed Virgin

Marye for the chapel of the King s chamber there.
289
Writ tested at Woodstock, 2oth February.

WORCESTER. Originally founded in 678 or 680,

and dedi
cated to was served by a chapter of
St. Peter ;
it

secular clerks, and was soon called St. Marye s. 290

The first mention of the church as St. Marye s
291
Minster is in a charter of the year 743-
In 983, Oswald completed the new Minster,
which he dedicated to our Blessed Ladye, and in
292
which he erected twenty-eight altars.
Pre-eminent amongst the benefactors to this
church are Leofric and Godgifu, Earl and
Countess of Mercia, although there is evidence
in connection with Worcester, that, in his younger
days, the Earl was not
such a devoted son of

Holy Church as his subsequent acts proved him

to have become, and to which I have alluded
293
under the heading of Coventry. Heming says,
that about the year 1007, many lands were taken
from the Church. Heamton belonged to the
monastery, because Wlstan or Wulstan recovered
it by law from Earngate, the son of Grim, but
could not obtain possession of it because Earl
Leofric, who greatly favoured Earngate, prevented
it, and kept Earngate besought the
it by force.

Bishop to son a monk, but Wlstan

make his

refused, insisting that he should do right to the

Church, and restore all the land, or, at least, give
that portion of it,
called Thiccan A
pel Treo, to
it,
But Earngate refused,
together with his son.
that his son should have it after him ;
saying
they came to no agreement,
and in little time
he had not one son of his family left to inherit.
294
it.

In Oxfordshire, one Simund, a Dane, a soldier

of Earl Leofric endeavoured to dispossess the
s,

monks they had in Crowl, for he so

of what
them with suits and trespasses, that he
plagued
drove away the farmers, and so they were forced
29
28a
Lib. Rolls, 40 Hen. III. Angl. Sacra, vol. i.
p. 469.
*
291 Man. Angl. vol. Ibid. p. 568.
i.
p. 567.
293
See ante. p. 19.
2<J1
Chattular. Eccl. Wigorn. pp. 260, 261.
252 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

to grant the lands to him for his life, on condition

that he should serve for them in the wars by sea
and land, and should acknowledge the prior for
his lord, by paying, yearly, a horse, or money
in lieu thereof. 205 But to make some amends for
their losses, Earl Leofric, on the death of his
father, Leofwine, restored to them Wulfardlea and
Blackwell, which had a long time been
for
withheld from them. And he also promised to
restore to them at his death Chadesley, Beolne,
Broctun, and Forfeld. 206
On the death of Earl Leofric in 1057, Godgifu.
who is described as a lady of great praise, came
to the monks and gave them for the health of
his and her soul three cloaks, two curtains, two
coverings for benches, two candlesticks finely
wrought, and a library, desiring that she might
hold these lands during her life, paying yearly
a certain sum of money, and that at her death
they should return to the abbey, to which the
297
monks readily assented.
Earl Leofric was represented in two of the
windows of the monastery, with the inscription,
LeofricitsComes dedit Blackwell^ The real
donation, however, was on the part of Leofric
and Godgifu, of five hides at Wolverley and two
at Blackwell, for the use of the refectory. 299 The
charter in Anglo-Saxon together with a translation
300
into Latin is given in the Codex.
i. The celebrated image of Our Ladye of
Worcester stood over the high altar. There was
a huge image of our Ladye at Worcester, says
Burnet, that was had in great reverence, which
when it was
stripped of some veils that covered it,
was found to be the statue of a bishop. 1
This evidence of Burnet s has been eagerly
seized and commented upon by more than one
writer, as a proof of the deceit practised by the
excellent monks. A more groundless charge was
never trumped up ;
it convicts itself, and is one of
the sensational lies of the period.

293 298 29:

Chartular. Eccl. Wigorn, p. 265. Ibid. p. 261. Ibid. pp. 261, 262.
* J8 2 "
Thomas, pp. 1832. Heming,
p. 408.
300
Vol. iv. pp. 72, 73. Chart. DCCLXV. ,
l
Hist, of Reformation, 1681, vol. i.
p. 243.
 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye. 253

In the first place there was nothing unusual

if the image had been a colossal one. It was

a principal object in the church, and therefore

had to be seen from a distance. But an image
of our Ladye would have had her Divine Son
in her arms, for an image of our Ladye alone
would have been most unusual at that period, and
therefore our Lord would have been missed at

once the bishop had been substituted for our

if

Blessed Ladye. Nevertheless the reformers were

quite capable of making such a substitution.
And as far as regards the size of the statue, an

image of our Ladye called the long," dite la

"

Longne; die lange Moeder Godts, was venerated

in the Church of Notre Dame at Bruges. 2

The commissioners in their report to Cromwell

are silent as to the discovery of the bishop, but

Latimer calls the image of our Ladye the "grett
"

I trust your lordshype wyll," says he,

Sibyll."

our grett Sibyll to some good purpose,

"bestow

lit
fereat memoria cum Sonita (sic). She hath
byn the Devyll s instrument to bryng many (I
feere) to eternall fyre : now she heresylff with
her old syster of Wolsyngham, her young syster
of Ipswych, with ther other too systurs of Dong-
caster and Penryesse, wold make a jooly mustere
in Smythfeld. They wold nott be all day in
3
burnynge."
4
Froude believes this silly story; but the
latest historian of Worcester, Noakes, who has
had access to all the municipal and other docu
ments has found no trace of this legend. Its

absurdity is patent to all who have any knowledge

of the iconography of our Blessed Ladye.
In 1439, Isabel, Countess of Warwich, be
queathed to our Ladye of Worcester her great
5
image of wax, then in London.
In the Privy Purse expenses of Elizabeth of
York, there is an entry on the 24th March,
1502, of 5^. for an offering to our Ladye of
Worcester. 6
2
Beaucourt, Description de I Eglise de N. Dame, Bruges.
3
Latimer s Letter to Cromwell. Ellis s Original Letters. Third Series, vol. iii. p. 205.
* 5
Vet. p. 240. 6
p. 288. Test, Ibid, p. 3.
Hist, of England, iii. .
254 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladyc.

Thomas Bouchier, Cardinal Archbishop of

Canterbury, bequeathed to the church of Wor
cester an image of our Ladye of silver, gilt, of the
value of ^69. 7
Thomas de Cobham, Bishop of Worcester,
bequeathed to the altar, before which he should
be buried, an image of our Blessed Ladye, which
he had received as a present from the Abbot of
8
St. Augustine s, Bristol.

WORKSOP PRIORY. Several distinguished personages were buried

before the image of our Blessed Ladye.
Sir Thomas Nevill, Treasurer of
England,
aboven the quere is tumulate :

And his doghter Molde of right hye degree

In Saynt Mary chappel tumulate lyeth shee,
Afore our Blessed Ladye, next the Stall side
There may she be scene, she is not to hyde.

And Sir William Talbot

was beried even tho

\Vhich forsaid Sir William was greatly enduid with grace:
For five Candells perpetuall in that chappell
He ordeyned to brynne afore our Ladye. 9

Wen TON. Eustace Grenville,

ancestor to the present
Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, by his will
dated on the feast of St. Clement, 1479, bequeaths
to the light of the Blessed Virgin Marye in the said
church of Wotton three pounds of wax in candles
and two torches ; and to the altar of the Blessed
Marye in the said church one bushel of wheat,
10
and as much barley.

WROXHALL. A convent for Benedictine nuns was founded

here, at an early period, by Sir Hugh, son of
Richard, lord of Hatton ; and among the first
nuns were the two daughters of the founder, Edith
and Cleopatra.
A MS., ascribed to the time of Edward the
Fourth, gives the following narrative respecting
the foundation of the Ladye Chapel.
"

Dame Alice Craft, sometime nunne and

lady of this place, poor of worldly goods, but
7 8
Angl. Sacra, vol. i.
p. 795 Man. Angl. vol. i.
p. 575.
9 10
Man. Angl. vol. vi. p. 123. Test. Vet. p. 351.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 255

riche of vertues, desired heartily of God and our

a
Ladye, that she in her dayes might see here
a chapell of our Ladye. To that intent she
prayed oft time and on a night time there
:
cam
a voice to her, and bad her, in the name of God
and our Ladye, beginn and performe a chapell
of our Ladye. She remembred her therof, and
thought it but a dreme, and toke no heede
thereof. But not long to, another night following,
came the same voice to her againe, and gave
her the same charge more sharplye." Still

delaying to execute the work, she is visited by

our Ladye who reprimands her for her neglect on ;

which she, going to the prioress and stating that

she had only the sum of fifteen pence to commence
with, is yet encouraged to undertake the work
in the trust that our Ladye would increase her
store.
"

Then this Dame

Alice Croft gave her
to prayers, and besought our Ladye to give her
knowledge wher she should build it, and how
much she should make it. Then she had by
revelation to make it on the north side of her
churche, and she should find markyd the quantity.
This was harvest, between the two feasts of
in

our Ladye, and on the morrow earlye she went

unto the place assigned her, and there she found
a certeyne ground covered with snow, and all the
churchyard else bare without snow. She, glad
of this, had masons ready and marked out the

ground, and built the chapell, and performed

it

And whilst it was in build

up. every Satturday
in the allyes of
ing she would say her prayers
the churchyard, and in the playne pathe she
should and did finde weekely sylver suficient to
to her
pay her workmen, and all that behoofull
worke and no more. This good lady Dame Alice
Croft died on vii. calends of Feverell, on the
morrow after the Conversion of Saint Paul, and
she is buried under a stone in the same chapell
afore the dore entering into the
u
quire."

11
Man. t. iv. pp. 90 92. Cf. Notices of (he Churches in Warwickshire,
AIIJI.
vol. i.
p. 47.
256 Old English Devotion to oiir Blessed Ladye.

WYKE. The chapel of Wyke, near Winchester, was

formerly dependent upon our Ladye of the Valley,
or Valleys. The Ecclesiastical Taxation of Pope
Nicholas the Fourth in 1290, records the church
of our Ladye of the Valley, with the chapel of
Wyke taxed at io/. In the time of Cardinal
Beaufort, 1405 1447, this church and chapel
were united to the parish church of St. Anastasius.
Previously to the dissolution, with other statues
there was one of our Ladye, and to her light
Agnes Complyn, widow of William Complyn, by
will dated 3Oth September, 1503, bequeathed
three ewe sheep tres ores matrices. 12

YARMOUTH, or GREAT I. ST. NICHOLAS.

YARMOUTH, i. Our Ladye in St. Nicholas Church was a
NORFOLK. great object of popular devotion, and in a long
series of Yarmouth wills there are constant lega
cies to her light. Sometimes they are left to
her sometimes to her light in St. Nicholas
light,
Church, and sometimes again to her light in
Yarmouth but they all relate to one and the
;

same object, for the Ladye-light in St. Nicholas

Church was pre-eminently our Ladye s light in
Yarmouth.
In 1280, Beatrice, late wife of Thomas Mount,
gave to the light of the Blessed Virgin 2s. of an
annual rent to be paid at the feast of St. Martin,
out of a messuage in Great Yarmouth for ever.
On the 1 4th April, 1349, Simon de Halle
leaves 6s. Sd. to St. Marye s light in St. Nicholas:
in May, William Fleming leaves 5^. : on the
4th June, John de Brouneswelle 12^., and Jeffrey
de Stalham, burgess, i$s. 4^.: on the 3oth July,
John Yue half a mark of silver, all to the same
light and in this year also, Roger Wolvyne left
:

id.,John de Norton 6d., to St. Marye s light;

and William Motte 2s. for the light; and to the
image of our Ladye there two clasps of gold.
In 1355, William Oxney, burgess, leaves 40^. to
St. Marye s light in St. Nicholas Church in 1356, :

Richard Fastolfe 2os., and also an annual rent

of 6s., to be received out of a tenement for ever:
li!
journal of British ArchccoL Association, 1863, pp. 185, 200.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 257

in 1362,Stephen de Stalham, burgess 2os. to the

Marye in Yarmouth church: in 1374,
light of St.
John de Stalham 20 s. in 1379, William de :

Stalham 2os., and Simon atte Gappe 6s. 8</. :

in 1381, Peter and

Bennett leaves to the bailiffs

commonalty of Great Yarmouth, for an aid and

support of St. Marye s light in the Church of
Nicholas, 5 s. of an annual rent to be received
St.

yearly for ever and in 1385, Nicholas Wildegoose

:

leaves to our Ladye s light los. These extracts

are sufficient. I have cited them because they
are of earlier dates than the majority of the
legacies which I have quoted in this Series ; but
the list which Swinden gives occupies many
13
pages.
In the compotits of Yarmouth Priory in T 484,
they received for herrings offered to our Blessed
Ladye i6s. 4d. u
2. Our Lady of Arneborg, Arneburgh, Arnes-
berg, Arnesburgh, Ernesburgh.
Thus variously is the name given in various
documents ;
but the correct form is our Ladye
of Ardenberg, or, as is written in the Low Coun
tries, Aardenberg.
Froissart relates, that after the great victory
which Edward the Third gained at sea, off Sluys,
in 1340, the next day, y e whyche was Myd-
"on

somer-day, the King and all his toke land, and

the King on fote went a pylgrimage to our Ladye
of Ardebourge, and there herd masse and dyned,
and thane take his horse and rode to Gaunt
wher the Quene receyved hym with great ioye." 15
Now, of the two hundred and sixty ships
which composed the English fleet, sixty, at least,
were from Yarmouth, and manned by stalwart
16
East-Anglians. It is very probable that many
of these brave men of Yarmouth accompanied
their sovereign to Ardenberg, and, that on their
return home, they founded an altar to our Ladye

13
History and Antiquities of Great Yarmouth, pp. 804 820. Norwich, 1772.
14
Palmer, Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, vol. iii. p. 52, note. 1875.
15 Ed. cit.
Vol. i. c. 50, p. 73.
16
Barnes, Life of Edward ///. p. 180.
258 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

of Ardenberg, in the church of Nicholas, in

thanksgiving for the victory.
It is shortly after this date that mentions of
our Lady of Ardenberg occur. On the i4th April,
*349>
Simon de Halle bequeaths i2d. to the
17
Marye de Arnesberg.
altar of St.
About the year 1370, the prior of St. Olave,
Roger de Haddisco, built a chapel at the east
end of the chancel of the church of St. Nicholas,
and dedicated it to our Ladye of Arneburgh. 18
In 1508, Walter Schaue, of Great Yarmouth,
desires "his wretched body to be buryed w*ought
the north door of the chapel of or Ladye of
Arneburgh, in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, in
the foreseed Yarmouth/ 19

20
There was a
gild of St. Marye of Arnesburgh.
In 1452, Ardenberg, described as once a chief
town of Flanders, was burnt by the men of Ghent,
and the magnificent church of our Ladye one of
the finest in the world was destroyed. 21 The
celebrated image of our Blessed Ladye was saved
from the fire and transported to Bruges, where it
was placed in a niche in the fagade of the Hotel
22
de Ville.

3. Our Ladye of the Percy s chapel.

This chapel was in the church of St. Nicholas.
Mr. Charles J. Palmer, F.S.A., the learned con-
tinuator of Manship and Historian of Great
Yarmouth, informs me that Porey is not the
name of any known Yarmouth family.

Many old chapels of our Ladye bear names,

the signification of which has perished, and which
carmot now be explained.
Amongst the nineteen gilds in Yarmouth, one
was the gild of St. Marye de le Pere, or de la Pere."1 *
Swinden adds in a note, that Pere is a town in
France. There are several villages called Pere,
Percy, le Percy, in France. There was also a
celebrated priory of our Ladye du Perrey, founded
by Robert the Fourth, called le Gros, lord of
17 18
Swinden, p. 807. Ibid.
20
Palmer, History of Yarmouth.
threat Swinden, p. 812.
S1 22
Barnes, p. 184. Weale, Guide to Belgium, c., p. 168. London, 1859.
23
Palmer, vol. i.
p. 244: Swinden, p. 811.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 259

Betheune, outside the walls of Betheune in mo,

which was pillaged by the English in i4o6. 24
Or is Porey a corruption of Doreel Several
images of our Ladye in France were thus named.
Under the ramparts of Orleans there was La
Dorade, or Notre Dame la. Doree, otherwise Notre
Dame de la Regie, called in a Bull o.f Eugenius
the Third, in 1152, Eeata Maria inter murum et

fossatiim;^ whilst at Ghent there existed from

time out of mind, in that part of the city called
Overschelde, a gild of our Lady du Mont Or.^ D
II. ST. MARY ultra Pontem.
This church, so called from position con
its

necting Yarmouth with South-Town, was the

ancient church for West-Town and South-Town
before these benefices were consolidated with
the living of Gorleston, in 1511. It was demo

lished in 1548, and its ruins were used in con

27
structing and repairing the haven and piers.
Here was a gild of St. Mary de West-Town
ultra Pontem, to which, in 1479, Robert Atkins

bequeathed

YORK. I. THE MINSTER.

i. Our Ladye in the Crypt.
This was coeval with the Minster, and
altar
the Marye-Mass was daily sung at it. 29
The master of the choristers
"was to keep
the Lady-Masse at all tymes accustomed with
the said queresters or children within the chapell
of our Ladye (in the crypt) in the same church,
and also keep and play of the organes within the
said chapell during the said Masse." 30
It seems that there was a Ladye-Mass in the

Minster as well. Sir John Gisburgh, by his will,

24
A. de Cardovaque, Notice sur le Prieure de N- D. du Perroy, p. 6. Arras, 1859.
25
Hamon, Notre Dame de France, p. 332.
"

6
Diericx, Memoires sur la Ville de Gand, p. 430.
27
Manship, pp. 91, 92.
!8
Palmer, vol. i.
p. 244.
20 York Royal Archaeological Institute, vol. ii. p. 58.
vols. of the

Browne, History of the Metropolitan Church of St,

b
Register, Ga. a.
51. f. Peter,

York, p. 297. London, 1847.

260 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

dated April 21, 1479, desires to be buried before

the image of our Ladye in the north aisle, and
wills that if it in
any manner can be done, the
Mass of the Blessed Virgin Marye be celebrated
at the altar of St. Stephen at the day of his
burial. 31 And by
his will, dated November 6,

1487, John Carr of York says:

I bewit my gold ryng with the diamond to
"

hyng about the nek of the ymage oure Ladye

y* standes abowne oure Ladye altar in the
Mynster where they sing oure Ladye Messe.
Also I bewit another ryng w* a ruby and one
torcos to hyng aboute oure Lord s nek that is
in the armis of thesame ymage of oure Ladye." 32
2. Our Ladye
High Altar. at the
The high altar, says Browne, was generally
considered the altar of our Ladye and to ;

enhance its dignity, an image of our Ladye, gilt,

and splendidly adorned, was placed near the
south end of the altar, and no Mass was expected
to be said at that altar without two
large wax
candles burning before the image, in addition to
the wax candles on the altar. 33
By will, dated April 10, 1493, Master Robert
Este left
twenty marks, English money, to gild
the image of the Blessed Virgin Marye at the
end of the great altar in the Metropolitan Church
atYork, on the south side of the said altar. 34
It was the rubric in this Cathedral that the

Hebdomary, i.e., the canon of the week, who

sang the daily High Mass, should carry every
day, as he went from the sacristy to the high
altar, an image of our Ladye of silver gilt, which
he then placed upon the altar. This image
represented our Ladye with her Divine Son in
her arms, Who held a sapphire in His hand. It

weighed 5 Ib. noz. 30

3. -Our Ladye s Altar behind the High Altar.
Thomas
Karr, who had been one of the
sheriffs of the city of York in 1428,
by his will,
31
Register By. f.
350 b. Browne, p. 263.
3a S3
Test. Ebor. vol. iv. p. 27. P. 175.
34
Register By. f.
380 b. as. f.
356, By. f.
381. Browne, p. 263.
"*

Man. Angl. vol. vi. p. 1204.

Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 261

dated April 24, 1444, left 100 shillings to buy

two chains of gold, one to be placed around
the neck of the image of the Blessed Virgin
Marye, at her altar behind the high altar of the
cathedral church of St. Peter s, York, and the
other to be placed around the neck of her Son,
Who is in her arms. He also bequeathed a
gold ring, of the price of i$s. ivrt% to be placed
and chained around the neck of the image of
our Blessed Ladye. 36
4. Our Ladye at the door of the north aisle

of the choir.
The Fabric Rolls for the year 1518 contains
this entry :

Paid to two painters, for painting two images

of the Blessed Marye, with their tabernacles
and histories, one at the red chest, the other at
the door of the north aisle of the choir, they

finding the gold, bice, and other colours in gross,

io/. os. od.

5. Our Ladye on the north side of the church.

The same entry continues :

"And 20 s. given by the hands of Thomas

Water, Registrar of the Lords, the Dean and

Chapter of the Church of York, for a painting

of the Blessed Virgin Marye, on the north side of
the same church. 37
6. Our Ladye at
St. Stephen s altar.

This celebrated image is sometimes described

as our Ladye in the north aisle. It was erected

in 1419, in which year the sum of 23^. and ^d.

were assigned "for the purchase of an image of
Blessed Marye, with the making of its tabernacle
and the painting of the same, standing above
38
the parclose before the altar of St. Stephen."
In 1479, Sir John Gisburgh desired to be
buried before this image, and wished the Marye
Mass to be sung at this altar, 39 as I have just
mentioned. And in 1493, -by his will, dated

April io of that year, Master Thomas Este gave

his body to be buried in the north aisle of the

36 Test. Ebor. vol. ii.

p. 92.
37 ss Fab. Rolls,
Browne, p. 271.
s::!> anno.
39 f.
Register By. 350.
262 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

cathedral, near the tomb of Sir John Gisburgh,

late Canon Residentiary of the Minster, and
before the image or figure of the most exalted
40
Virgin Marye. Many other similar instances
are recorded.
7. Our Ladye in the south side of the Minster.

Nicholas Blackburn, senior, citizen and mer

chant of York, by his will, dated February 20,
1431 2, desires to be buried in the cathedral,
in the south side, before the
image of our Blessed
Ladye there, under the marble slab already pre
pared for that purpose in that spot. 41
And two years later, his widow, Margaret,
desires to be buried by his side, before the
same image of our Ladye. 42
8. Our Lady at the altar of the Most
Holy
Trinity over the treasury.
In 1348, by will, dated Tuesday after the
feast of the Holy Trinity, Sir Thomas Sampson,
Canon of the Cathedral of York, bequeaths, with
other objects, an image of our Ladye, of ala
baster, to the altar of the Blessed Trinity newly
constructed over the treasury in the cathedral. 43
9. Our Ladye over the Red Ark.
The Rubea Area, or red ark, or chest, was
placed against the south side of the south-east
pier of the large tower, about the year 1441, and
above it stood an image of our Ladye. 44
The red ark was placed here to receive offer
ings and donations towards the fabric of the
cathedral,as appears from the will of Robert

Esyngwald, a proctor at York, dated August i,

1443, by which he desires to be buried in
St. Peter s, York, before the
image of our Ladye
placed where the people make their offerings to
the fabric of the church. 45 Five months pre
viously, Master William Otterbourn, the sacristan,
had desired to be buried before this image. 46
The red ark was painted periodically thus, :

in the Fabric Roll of 1515, there is an entry,

40
Register By. f.
380 b. Browne, p. 218.
41 43
Test. Ebor. vol. ii.
p. 17. Ibid. p. 46.
43
Zouch s Register, f. 335. Browne, p. 127. Ibid. p. 236.
44
.

45 46
Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 90, Register By. f. 256.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 263

"for
painting the red chest under the image of
the Blessed Virgin Marye for receiving the alms
to be offered and kept for the use of the fabric,
2\d. And for three quarters (?) of gold for

gilding one star above the image of the Blessed

Virgin Marye, $s. And to the painter for paint

ing and gilding the same star, 20 d. And in

1516, Ursyn Milner, for the binding of books
and the painting of the red ark beneath the
47
image of our Ladye, received the sum of 49 s, 4d.
This same Ursyn Milner had printed the Office
of our Blessed Ladye ad usum Eboracensem, of
which only one copy was known to exist. 48
Several of the carved bosses in the minster
49
represent our Blessed Ladye.
One boss in the centre of the archway, in the
screen which separates the chancel from the rest
of the church, deserves mention. It represents

our Ladye standing, her hands placed together,

palm to palm, before her, but not clasped ; her
hair is flowing, and she has neither veil nor
crown. She is figured within a pointed oval
moulding, which is supported by four angels. I
have often heard this particular sculpture men
tioned as being intended for the Immaculate
Conception, but as none of the attributes of
that mystery are given, it must be considered as
the Assumption, which, in English art, is usually
thus represented.

II. ST. CLEMENT S, IN THE SUBURBS.

Isabella Bruce, widow of Robert Bruce,
esquire, desires tobe buried in the Convent of
nuns, at St. Clement s, in the suburbs of York,
by the grave of her sister Joan, under the images
of our Ladye and St. William. Will dated
3oth July, 1477.

III. ST. HELEN S.

In 1392, Matilda, widow of William Marshall,

47
Fab. Rolls, p. 97.
48
Ames. Typographical Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 1438. Edit. Herbert. Cf. Davies,
A Memoir of the York Press, p. 20. Westminster, 1868.
49 See Browne, plates, 96, 101, 106, 126.
50
Test. Ebor. vol. hi. p. 231.
264 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

left to the high altar of the Church of St. Helen

by the walls of the city of
York, an image of our
Blessed Ladye of alabaster. 51

IV. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST IN HUNDGATE.

William Riche left xxs. for the
painting of the
image of our Ladye below the choir of St. s.
52
John

V. ST. JOHN S BY OUSE-BRIDGE.

John Baxter, citizen of York, leaves vi.r. vinV.
to the making of two
tabernacles, one of which
is for the
image of our Ladye in the north chancel.
Will dated 28th 53
January, I478.

VI. ST. MARYE S ABBEY.

This was founded by the
good old Saxon Earl
of Northumberland,
Sigweard, commonly now
called Siward, the friend of Leofric and Godgifu,
in 1054.Hither he came to die, under the
protection of our Ladye.
In 1401, Isabella, wife of William
Belgrafe,
leaves a pair of amber beads
with a ring of
silver and gold to
hang before the image of our
Blessed Ladye in the Abbey of St. York. 54 Mary s,
In 1402, Isabella, wife of John
Catclough Barbour,
leaves a gold ring to this
image of our Ladye. 55

VII. Near this abbey there was a

chapel
of our Ladye, and to the
image which was in
it, in 1442, Richard Cotingham, citizen of
York,
bequeathed a red belt well adorned with silver. 5 ^
And in 1464, Eufemia, widow of Sir John
Lang-
ton, left to the same a necklace of
pearls with
a balas-ruby. 57

VIII. ST. SAMPSON.

In 1392, Nicholas de Scherburn of York,
chaplain, left iiij. and iiuV. for a tabernacle of
alabaster for the
image of our Ladye in the choir
of this church. 58

Test. Ebor. vol. i.

p. 183. Ibid. vol. ii.
p. 270. ibid. vol. iii. p. 247
54
Test. Ebor. vol. i.
p. 280.
55
Ibid. p. 2 9 i; =6

58
lbid yol
Ibid, vol.
ij

i.
p g
p. 172,
4>
6?
Ib .^ ^ 2 ^
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 265

IX. THE HOLY TRINITY IN GOTHEROMGATE.

In 1402, John Couper, of York, leaves xuV.
59
to the lights of the Holy Cross and our Ladye.
And in 1463, Henry Salvane or Salvin, esquire,
leaves four pounds of wax to be made into four
of the Blessed
tapers to be burnt before the image
Virgin Marye in the choir of this church. 60

The following were omitted in their proper

order; but it has since been thought advisable
to insert them.

ACKLAM IN In 1402, Sir Thomas Boynton, knight, leaves

CLEVELAND. to the light of our Ladye in the church of Acclom,
xiiu. iihV. And in 1453, Thomas Lynehouse,
61

of Seventhorpe, leaves to the lights of the Holy

Rood and our Blessed Ladye, in the same church,
xvU 62

ARLINGHAM, Bigland quotes as follows from an old MS.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, at Berkeley Castle :

parish also were divers lands and

"In this

tenements dedicated to the service of the Blessed

Virgin Marye, to whom, also, I think the parish
church was dedicated; which lands in the time
of King Henry the Fourth were under the dis-
posinge and lettinge of the Procurators Servitie
beate Marie Virginis de Arlingham; the house
the preist then before dwelt in, and after, was,
and yet is, called our Ladies preist s house." G3

ARUNDEL. Thomas, Earl of Arundel, K.G., by his will

dated October 10, 1415, wills that his executors
cause to be built at the gate called Marye Gate in
Arundel a certain chapel in honour of the Blessed
Virgin Marye. This chapel stood at a short
distance from the Marygate, and within the
town. 64
59 Test. Ebor. p. 289.
60
Ibid. vol. ii.
p. 264.
61
Ibid. vol. i.
p. 287.
62
Ibid. vol. ii. p. 171.
63
Historical, Monumental, and Genealogical Collections relative to the County of
Gloucester, p. 66. Lond. 1791.
64
Test. Vet. p. 186.
 266 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye,

Another chapel of our Ladye stood over the

Marygate, which was erected at the close of the
thirteenth century, but the first and
only mention
of it occurs in the statutes of the
College in 1387.
In that document the chapel over the
gate is
described as already existing, one of the brethren
of the College is
specially appointed to its service,
and a daily Mass is ordered to be celebrated
65
within it.

BERKELEY CASTLE, The

following extract from Smyth s MS.
History of the Hundred of Berkeley, preserved
in the Castle, as quoted by Bigland, will show
that the chapel had fallen into disuse before
1364,
and that it was then restored :

"

In
Castle were of late years
this
(not yet
wholly ruined or deformed) two beautiful chapels
or oratories, endowed with divers
privileges from
the Bishops of Rome. The one of them in
the a goodly well of water under
keep, with
(now destroyed); the other at the upper end of
the great hall stairs leading to the dyning
chamber: and for the devout keeping of the
ornaments thereunto belonging, divers allowances
were by the lords yearly made, as from divers
accompts and deeds in the evidence house in
this Castle appears. Maurice, Lord Berkeley
(fourth of the name), 38 Edward the Third (1364)
obtained of Pope Urban the Second, 00 his by
Papal Bull and power, to the end his two chapels,
the one of our Ladye the Blessed
Virgin, the
other of St. John the
Baptist, founded in the
Castle of Berkeley, might be renewed and fre
quented with due honours forty days of pardon :

and release of the penance enjoyned to every one

who should, in the said chapels on the festival
days of the year, heare Masses, or say kneeling
three Ave Marias, or give any vestments or
chalices, or any other aids of charity to the said
chappels. And whosoever shall there pray for
them that obtained these presents, and for the
65
Tierney, Hist, and Antiq. of the Town and Castle of Arundel, p. 675. Lond.
1834.
66
This is
evidently a misprint or a mistake for Urban V. 1362 70.
 Old English Devotion to otir Blessed Ladye. 267

and good estate of the noble Lord Maurice

life

de Berkeley, and the Lady Elizabeth his wife,

and for their children, and for the soul of Lord
Thomas, his father, being in Purgatory, shall bee
also released of forty days of the penance enjoyed
them. And this faculty, grace, or instrument of
infallibleness is alsoe under the scales of eleven
of the Pope s Cardinals ; perhaps alsoe somewhat
the rather procured by that lord s wisdom through
the great schisme of three Popes at once that
then raigned in the Church." 67

GREAT BERKHAMP- Nicholas Talbot, in his will, dated June 8,

STED. 1501, says :

"... my body, if it happyt me to depart

within vii myle of Gret Berkehamstede to be

buryed ther within the chapell of oure Ladye

betwyx the ymage of oure Ladye of Pyte and
the image of oure Ladye of Grace within the
68
parysche chyrche of the seyd town."

BEVERLEY. I. COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN OF

BEVERLEY.
Our Ladye above the Red Ark.
It would almost seem as if the Chapter of
York had taken the idea of the Red Ark from
Beverley. I have not as yet ascertained when

it was first put up, but in 1398, William Bird of

Beverley, by his will, dated the feast of

St. Lambert,

martyr (September 17), bequeaths to the image

of the Blessed Virgin Marye above the Red Ark
in the collegiate church of St. John at Beverley,
one piece of his best silk velvet. m

II. CHURCH OF ST. MARYE.

Our Ladye in the middle of the nave.
Dionisia Holme, of Beverley, widow, by her
will, dated January. 3, 1470 i, bequeathes a silk

belt, adorned with silver and gold, to the image

67
Domestic Architecture of the Middle A%es: XV. century, pt. ii.
pp. 255, 256;
Biglancl, vol. i.
p. 154.
68
Bury Wills and Inventories, p. 85.
69
Test. Ebor. vol. i. p. 240.
268 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

of the Blessed Virgin Marye, in the nave of the

church. 70
In 1471, Henry Holme, of Beverley, leaves,
to adorn the image of the Blessed Virgin Marye
in the church of our
Ladye at Beverley, in the
middle of the nave of the said church, a pair of
beads of six tens of gold -preces Ix. ex anro. Will
dated August 3i. 71 And in 147 9, Thomas Dicson,
of Beverley, weaver, desires to be buried in
St. MaryeChurch, and leaves to the image of
s

the most sweet Virgin Marye his belt of red

silk,
embroidered with silver, and one good napkin. 72
It is most probable that the
following bequest
refers to this
image:
By dated February 25, 14978, Agnes
will

Hilyard bequeathes one old noble to be offered

for the image of the Blessed
Virgin Marye at
73
Beverley, to hang round the neck.

BISHOP S CANNING, In the church here there is a chantry dedi-

WILTS. cated to "Our
Ladye of the Bower."
74

Bower, in
Anglo-Saxon, Bur, Bure, means a
conclave, an inner chamber, a parlour, a bower
from the German Bawen, or Anglo-Saxon
Byan,
to inhabit, to indwell.
Hence the title of this chapel has evidently
reference to the Divine Maternity of our Blessed
Ladye, who is called the domns Dei, because she
bore in her womb
for nine months the Son of

God; words of Ecclesiasticus applied

or as the
to our Ladye in the
Liturgy of the Church express
it, Qiii creavit me reqniwit in tabernaculo meo
"and He that made me rested in my tabernacle." 75
In an old English poem, entitled Veni corona-
ben s, or a "Song of sweetness from Christ to
His Daintiest Dam," our Lord says :

Macula, moder, was neuer in thee,

Filia Syon, thou art the flour,
Ful sweteli schalt thou sitte bi me,
And here a crowne with me in tour,
And alle my seintis to thin honour

70
Test. Ebor. vol. iii.
p. 182.
71 72
Ibid. p. 192. Ibid. note. 7ii
Ibid. vol. iv. p. 133.
74
Notes and Queries, Second Series, vol. vii. p. 376.
7S
Ecclus. xxiv. 12,
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 269

Schal honoure thee, moder, in my bliss,

That blessid bodi that bare me in bowttr,

Veni, coronaberis ,

Bower corresponds to the French celle. Thus, in

apoem composed by Philip de Vitry, 1350 1357 :

A Toi, Glorieuse Fucelle,

Qui du Fils Dieu fus chambre et celle.

Et Qui seule fus vierge et mere,

Et qui seule enfantas ton pere,
A toi soit loenge et honnour,
77
Sur tons, apres le Seignour.

BLYTHE, or BLYDE. In 1347, Alice, wife of John Henriot, of

Blyda, bequeaths to the light of our Ladye on
78
the Bridge of Blye her green tunic with its hood.

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER. Our Ladye of Boulogne was a very favourite

pilgrimage of our English forefathers, and from

historical associations, deserves to be mentioned
in this list.

The legend of the image of our Ladye is

briefly this
About the year 633, a boat arrived at the
shore in which there was an image of our Ladye,
a copy of the Bible, and two relics. Attracted

by this unusual occurrence, some of the towns

people went towards the boat, when our Blessed
Ladye appeared visibly to them and told them
that she wished a church to be built in her

honour, and the image and relics, which had

just arrived, to be placed in it. They alleged
their poverty, whereupon she commanded them
to dig in a certain spot which she indicated,

saying they they would find the money that

was
necessary for the buildings, and then disappeared.
Such is the tradition, and nothing more is men
tioned for several centuries. The image of our

Ladye described as being carved of oak, about

is

three feet high, standing, and with her Divine

Son in her left arm.

Geofrey de Bouillon offered to our Ladye

the crown which he refused to wear as King of
76
Hymns to Christ and our Blessed Lady. Early Eng. Text Soc. vol. xxiv. p. I.

77
Hamon, Notre Dame de France, p. 250.
78
Test. Ebor. vol. i. p. 46.
270 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Jerusalem, and it is mentioned in an inventory as

late as the year i79i. 79
From the year 1212 there was a constant
succession of pilgrims to the sanctuary of our
Ladye of Boulogne, and of miracles wrought
through her all-powerful intercession.
Amongst the English kings who came hither
on pilgrimage Ladye may be named Henry
to our
the Third in 1254; Edward the Second was
married there; Edward the Third came several
times on one occasion he went on foot from
;

Calais to Boulogne, accompanied by the Dukes

of Clarence and York ; and the names of many
distinguished Englishmen are also recorded, as
well as the offerings which they made. The Earl
of Shrewsbury presented a magnificent robe of
cloth of gold with his coat of arms embroidered
on it ; the Earl of Warwick, Governor of Calais,
gave an image of our Ladye in silver gilt, with
the demon under her feet; and an English
merchant offered a turquoise of extraordinary size,
which was set in a cross, already so richly
ornamented with jewels that it was called La
Belle Croix.
One remarkable custom at Boulogne was that
the civil authorities used to offer the vin d
honneur to distinguished pilgrims ; and in the
municipal accounts for one year, 1415 to 1416,
there are entries thirteen times of the vin d
honneur being offered to thirteen different bodies
of pilgrims, it being stated in each case that
they had come on pilgrimage to our Ladye of
8
Boulogne. ? And from the year 1273 there are
innumerable records of persons who were con
demned by judicial authority to make the
pilgrimage to our Ladye of Boulogne in expia
tion of their crimes. This practice formed a part
of the penal law of France for the lay tribunals
as well as for ecclesiastical justice. This is also
proved by the Registers of the Inquisition of
Carcassonne, which were copied in the seven-
teeth century by order of the Commissary, Doat ;
79
Haignere, Hist, de N. Dame de Boulogne, p. 26. 1864.
80
Ibid. p. 1 20.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 271

and these volumes form one of the most curious

In one
collections in the Bibliothe que Nationale.
of these Registers there is a list of the chief
sanctuaries in Europe, classified according to their

importance, and the four greater ones are Rome,

Compostella, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and
Cologne. Our Ladye of Boulogne, together with
Puy, Vauvert, Chartres, Roc-Amadour, and many
other sanctuaries of the Blessed Virgin are given
81
among the lesser ones. In all these cases the
pilgrims had to bring back a certificate of having
fulfilled their sentence.
In 1478 Louis the Eleventh solemnly invested
our Ladye of Boulogne with the sovereignty of
the Comte of Boulogne, by Letters Patent, given
at Hesdin in the month of April of that year,
in which he declared himself and his successors
to be the vassals of our Ladye, and acknowledges
her as his sovereign. In these Letters Patent he
bears testimony to the great and constant miracles
which are daily wrought by the intercesion of
our Ladye of Boulogne in her sanctuary, and
furthermore binds himself and his successors to
offer a heart of gold as their feudal tribute : . . .

Et outre, pour / honneur et reverence de ladite

Dame. Nous et nosdits successeurs seront tenus, en

faisant ledit hommage, d

offrir et presenter dei ant
ladite Damenoire cotur en espcce et figure de metail
d or fin, de la pesanteur de treize marcs d or, qui
sera employe au bicn et entretenement de la dite

eglise.
This was no mere consecration, but a real
investiture of our Ladye with sovereign rights, she,
in virtue thereof, being entitled to the homage of
the King as her vassal. To her were also paid
allthe fines and other sums to which the kings
had heretofore been entitled.
In 1532 Henry the Eighth and Francis the
First of France spent some days at Boulogne, and
they daily assisted at Mass in our Ladye s chapel,
and made their offerings to her. 82
Subsequently,
in 1544, on the :8th July, Henry came to lay
siege to the city. It surrendered on the i4th
81 8J
Reg. Doat. t. xxxvii. f. iii. Hall, p. 791 ; see ante, p. 4.
272 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

September. The English monarch seems to have

acted the part of another Alaric. What else
could be expected from the spoiler of the
monasteries and convents of his own kingdom,
and whose hands were stained with the innocent
blood of Sir Thomas More, Cardinal Fisher, and
many other glorious martyrs. The church was
robbed of all its riches, and turned into an
arsenal ; the chapel of our Ladye was destroyed ;

the venerated image of our Ladye was subjected

to all sorts of insults, her face was injured, her
nose cut off, and finally it was carried off to
England. The English did not confine them
selves to the pillage of the churches : the
inhabitants had
to quit the city, and the brutal

soldiery stripped even the ladies of their dresses,

leaving them to depart barefoot and clad only
in their chemises. 83
In 1550, Louis de la Trimouille, Prince of
Talmond, and subsequently first Duke of Thouars,
who had been one of the French hostages sent
to England, was instructed by his King to demand
the restoration of the image of our Ladye; a
request with which Edward the Sixth at once
complied. Its return to Boulogne was the cause
of universal rejoicing ; and within five or six
years from this date, the new riches in the treasury,
consisting of votive offerings, were valued at two
hundred thousand livres.

In 1567, when the Huguenots had begun to

infest France, on the morning of Sunday, the i2th

October, it was discovered that the miraculous

83
"Le
roy d Angleterre estant demoure maitre de la Haulte et Basse-Boulongne,
donna conge aux habitans de pouvoir s en aller avec leurs biens et ce qu ilz pouvoient
emporter, lesquelz, se confians en ce sauf-conduit, et se retirans a la file sans aucune
doute, estoient desvalisez et mis en chemises par les Anglois qui les attendoient aux
passages, en quoy receurent les povres Boulonnois dommages inestimables tant en
leurs biens qu en car ceux qui vouloient ou fai faisoient semblant de
leurs personnes :

en pieces.
resister estoient taillez C estoit grand pitie de voir les povres dames et
damoiselles eschappees de ces cruelz chiens, se sauver nuds pieds et despouillez de
leurs habits et aornemens, trainant leurs petis enfans. Et ne fault pas dire si les
povres filles a marier eurent souffrir en ce tumultuaire departement, es personnes
; i

desquelles furent commis plusieurs cruelz examples et exces de tyrannic intolerable."

(Histoire de noslre temps faite en latin. Par M. Guillaume Paradin, et par luy mise en
franjois, p. 137. Lyon, 1550).
Old English Devotion to oitr Blessed Ladye. 273

image of our Ladye had been carried off. It was

sought for on all sides but with no result. On the
horrible scenes which followed I need not dwell.
After the Huguenots had taken their departure in
April, 1568, the city officials were employed in
searching for the image everywhere, in the houses,
gardens, cellars, wells and tanks, but their efforts
were unsuccessful.
In 1588, a labourer of Bellebrune, James de
Wismes, who had gone to the wars, heard from
a sergeant named Bertrand Brillart, a Protestant,
the fate of the venerated image of our Ladye.
Speaking of the pillage and massacres of the
priests at Boulogne, Brillart admitted that he and
some others had carried it off from where it

stood ; they endeavoured to burn it, but it would

not take fare, although surrounded by fifteen
faggots of wood ; they tried to split it into pieces
but without success; finally they buried it in a
dung-heap, where they left it for three years ; and
then going to see if it had become rotten and
spoiled, they found it wholly untouched, where
upon they threw it into a well.
Not far from Boulogne, and in the parish of
Wimille, is the Chateau of Honvault. In the year
1607 an old gentleman, John de Frohart, who
had taken an active part in the religious wars, was
still living in it. He had been accused of having
shed the blood of some of the priests in 1567.
For some time past, however, he had rarely left his
chateau, where, having abjured the errors of his
earlier years, he was calmly preparing himself for
his death. Occasionally he would receive a visit
from a relative, a man of noble birth, Vespasian
de Fonteynes by name, who led the life of a
hermit in the forest of Desvres, a few miles from
Boulogne, where he devoted himself to prayer
and mortification. One day de Frohart said to
him : Wouldst thou be very happy, brother
"

Vespasian, if I were to give thee for thy little

wooden chapel, a precious treasure which I
possess? The ancient image of our Ladye of

Boulogne, which was carried off from her altar

by some of my former comrades in arms, was
274 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

thrown into the well of

my chateau, where it
was found by my wife. We have not ventured
to speak of it to
any one, lest we should be
charged with having stolen the treasure of the
church, but I cannot die without this placing
precious deposit in the hands of some pious and
religiousman."
Vespasian accepted the offer
with joy, and took into his council a
priest of
Boulogne, by nameAnthony Gillot, and they
resolved to transport the
image to the city, so
that our Ladye
might be restored to her ancient
honours.
Before, however, the image could be exposed
for veneration it had to be
identified, and the
process of its verification
occupied some years.
Moreover, the Ladye chapel had to be rebuilt;
and it was not until
Holy Saturday, the 3oth
March, 1630, that the image of our Ladye was
placed over the altar in her chapel by the
Bishop
of Boulogne, Victor
Bouthillier, and his Chapter ;
and from this time many miraculous cures were
wrought at this sanctuary, and pilgrims flocked to
it from all
parts as heretofore. in
Hither, too,
December, 1688, came James the Second of
England and his Queen, Maria d Este, who
vowed their son to our Ladye of
Boulogne.
At four o clock in the afternoon of the
24th
January, 1791, the Cathedral was closed, and the
canons were forbidden henceforth to exercise the
ministry of their sacred office, on pain of being
prosecuted as disturbers of the public order. An
inventory of all the objects of value was made,
and the image is described as
representation
"a

of the Virgin, in wood,

very ancient, holding the
Infant Jesus in her arms, and
being the object
of the veneration of the
people." Amongst the
ex-votos are named, a
herring in silver offered by
the master-fishermen of
Boulogne in 1788, and a
silver cow presented
by the inhabitants of Amble-
teuse in 1776, when the cattle
plague was raging
there.
On the loth November, 1793, the Feast of
Reason was first celebrated, with hideous orgies
in the Church of St. Nicholas and on the same
;
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 275

day, to make away with the ancient super

stitions," a bonfire was made
wood, of "

statues of
heretofore known under the denomination of
saints." The image of our Ladye was spared.
When it was removed from the Cathedral it was
taken into the salle du district, now the sous-
prefecture, and placed against the chimney-piece,
where it remained for a while. Finally, on the
2Qth December, 1793, it was burnt in the public
square in the midst of satanic exultations and
shouting and dancing. A sans-culotte placed a
red cap on the head of the sacred image, and it
was then thrown into the bonfire. The represen
tative of the city, Andrew Dumont, presided at
this disgraceful scene; and he thus related it to
the Convention
"A
Boulogne, la tres-sainte et la tres-incompre-
hensible, la tres-sainte Vierge noire que les Anglais
rtavaient pit briiler, fut, dans la phis belle fete qui
se pent celebrer, jetee dans le bucher et reduite en
cendres sans miracles. Tout Boulogne, hors les

detenus, hommes, femmes et enfants, tous crierent

Vive la Montagne ! et se jurerent union eternelle.
E allegresse fut tclle que la nuit se passa en bals,
ou sc trouverent tous les
dtoyens Janiais le . . .

S4
republicanisme ne se pronon$a mieux."
But was the venerated image really burnt?
The Abbe Haignere relates that he has often
heard old people at Boulogne say, that our Ladye
would be found again. Moreover they relate
that the patriots kept the bonfire alive on the

place d armes, until nine or ten o clock at night,

and although they procured more wood and
grease and oil, the statue would not burn.^ What
then has become of it ?

the present devotion to our Ladye of

Great is

Boulogne, and many an Ave is breathed in the

new sanctuary that her venerated image may be
discovered. From the Assumption till the end
of the month of August there is one continued
succession of pilgrimages from all the country
around, sometimes twenty in a day. At other
84
Moniteur of the 4th January, 1794.
85
Haignere, ubi. sup. p. 319.
276 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

times of the year the matdottes come by hundreds

to pray for their husbands, who are fishing in the
North Sea ; and these brave fellows never set sail
untilthey have made their pilgrimage to our
Ladye s sanctuary. And on the occasion of one
of their great pilgrimages, they are not content
with a Low Mass ; they will have a Messe d trois
mats, as they express it, i.e. a High Mass celebrated
for their welfare and success.

Images of our Ladye stood in niches over the

Porte de Calais and Porte des Dunes. The
former one seems to have been put up by the
Mayor and Corporation in 1659, probably to
replace an older one. Our Ladye is represented
in a boat, and holding a heart in her right hand.
The image was solemnly blessed by the Dean
of the Cathedral, on returning from the procession
of the Gang-days ; and our Ladye was then

solemnly invoked by all the clergy, three times, as

Patrona nostra singularis. This is an invocation
peculiar to Boulogne,and by permission of the
Sacred Congregation of Rites, it is inserted in
the Litany of Loreto when recited or sung in
86
Boulogne.
The two statues over the gates of the city were
taken down after the Revolution, but they escaped
destruction. In the year 1851, they were re
covered by a lady, whose name is associated with
every good work in Boulogne, Madame Lipsin,
who on the 2gth of June, ere the break of day,
caused them to be replaced where they formerly
stood. Great was the surprise and delight in
Boulogne when it was discovered that our Ladye
had come back again to watch over the gates of
87
her ancient city.

BRACEWELL. By his will, dated August 26, 1427, Sir

Richard Tempest of Bracewell desires to be
80
Haignere, ubi. sup. p. 261.
87
For authorities Cf. Montfort, Hist, de Vancienne Image de Nostre Dame de
Boulogne-sur-mer (Paris, 1634); Le Roy, Hist, de N. D. de Boulogne (Paris, 1682);
Haignere, Hist, de N. D. de Boulogne (Boulogne-sur-mer, 1864); Ibid. Etude sur la
Legende de N. D. de Boulogne (Boulogne-sur-mer, 1863). This contains the legend
of our Ladye of Boulogne, printed from a MS. of the fifteenth century in the Library
of the Arsenal, and giving six miniatures which are highly interesting.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 277

buried in the parish church, and leaves to the

light ofour Ladye of Braswell vix. vihV. 88

BRIDLINGTON. The reredos at the high altar of S. Mary s

Priory must have been a glorious composition.
It is thus described :

"

The reredos at the high altar representing

Christ at the Assumption of our Ladye, and
the twelve Apostles, with divers other great
images, is excellent well wrought and as well
gilted : and between the same and the east
window is John of Bridlington Shrine in a
St.

fair chapel on high, having on either side a

89
stair of stone for to go and come by."

CARLISLE. Our Ladye of Carlell is mentioned under

90
the head of Gisbro .

CHEVINGTON, Here was a of our Ladye. In 1450

light
SUFFOLK. Roger Nycole to the new painting
left 6s. 8</.

of the image of the Salutation over our Ladye s

altar, and bequeathed a cow to the light before
the same image. In 1524 Robert Parnan left
20 s. to make a tabernacle in which to set an

image of our Blessed Ladye on the south side

91
of the high altar.

CHRIST/CHURCH, The Priory.

HANTS. The
ladye chapel here is of great beauty, and
the stone screen of rich tabernacle work is of an
elaborately minute design, and when in a perfect

state, with all gorgeous display of painted

its

and gilt statuary, must have produced a striking

on every spectator.
effect
has been restored from existing fragments,
It
and some pieces of the statue of our Ladye
which probably stood in the centre niche were
found during the late repairs. 92

88 Test. Ebon v. i. p. 413.

Ba
Associated Architectural Societies Reports and Papers, 1854, v. i.
pt. i.
p. 51,
90
Seeante, p. 42.
91
Proceedings of the Suffolk Archaological Institute, v. iii.
p. 437.
91
Antiquities of the Priory of Christchurch, Hampshire, by B. Ferrey, and
E. W. Brayley, F.S.A. ; revised by John Britton, F.S.A. ; p. 47. London, 1841.
278 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

CLARENDON. The King to the Sheriff of Wiltshire :

"We command you to make ... in the

chapel of All Saints at our manor of Clarendon
... a crucifix, with two images on each side,
of wood, and an image of Blessed Marye with
her child. ... In the chamber of the Friars
Minor let there be made images of the Holy
Trinity and of Blessed Marye, with a certain
93
glass window, and repair it when necessary."
Writ tested at Gillingham, July 30, 1250.
In December the King writes to the Sheriff
of Wiltshire :

"We command you to put a glass window

in chamber of our Queen (at Clarendon),
the
and in the same window cause to be made a
Mariola with her Child, and a queen at the feet
of the same Marye, with clasped hands, holding
in her hand flue i^aria."
Writ tested at Clarendon, December y. 94
In 1251, the King to the Sheriff of Wiltshire ;

"We command you to make images of the

Blessed Marye, St. Edward, and Cherubim, and
place them in our chapel" (at Clarendon).

Writ tested at Marlborough, July 2. 95

CONISBOROUGH, In 1476-7, by will dated 6 March, Katherine

Co. YORK. Fitz-William, widow, the second wife of Edmund
Fitz-William, Esquire, desires to be buried in the
church of Connesburgh, before a certain image
of Our Ladye of 96
Pity.

COUGHTON. Sir Robert Throckmorton, in 1518, by his

willdevised that the image of our Ladye should
be set on the north side at the end of the altar
in the aisle, and the image of the angel
south
Gabriel on the same side of the altar, at the
pillar between the aisle and the chancel (at
Coughton), with a roll in his hand of greeting,
looking towards our Ladye. This roll means,
of course, a scroll with the salutation, Ave
gratia plena. These images were to be richly
97
painted and gilded.
93 94 Ibid. 9
Lib. Roll, 34 Hen. III. . Ibid. 35 Henry III.
96 97
Test. Ebor. v. iii. p. 227. Dugdale, Warwickshire, v. ii. p. 751.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 279

DARFIELD. In 1452, Thomas Wombwell of Wombwell,

Esquire, leaves to the service of our Lady in
the church of Darfield, iii/.
98
Will dated February 14 ,

Two
years later, by will dated July 10, Jane
Lady Wombwell, widow, leaves to the same
99
service of our Ladye, xiii^. iiijrt .

EASINGTON. William de Menville, by his will, dated

January 20, 1371, leaves ten marcs to support
for ever five wax candles before the altar of
our Blessed Ladye, in the chapel of Esyngton
church. 100

ECCLES. Eccles, about four miles from Manchester,

takes its name from the old church of St. Marye s
mentioned in Domesday, where it is called
Ecclcsia.

Leaving College Croft, and proceeding along

Regent Road in the direction of Manchester, is
to be seen, on descending a flight of thirty-six

steps, our Ladye s Well, which is dedicated to

her. A statue of our Ladye under a canopy
once stood over the well, but it has been
removed. Not far distant is another well called
our Lord s well. 101

ELLERTON. In 1497, Sir John Aske, of Aughton, knight,

desired, by his will, dated April 8, to be buried
in the chancel of the Monastery of Ellerton,
before the image of the Blessed Virgin, where
the Gospel iswont to be read by the Deacon. 102

FELSHAM. In 1467, Baldwin Coksedge leaves a cow to

provide two pounds of wax to burn before the
image of the Blessed Virgin in the chancel of
St. Peter of Felsham for ever. 103

FETHERSTON. Walter Frost, by his will dated in March,

1528, leaves to the altar of our Ladye at

Fetherston, aoj. 104

98 Test. Ebor. v. ii.

"
Ibid. p. 177.
p. 163.
100
Wills and Inventories, pt. i.
p. 32 ;
see also sub Ryton, p. 130.
101
The Lamp, v. viii. pt. xlvi. pp. 235, 236.
102 103
Test. Ebor, v. ii.
p. 275. Bury Wills, p. 273.
101 Yorkshire v. i,
Archa:olof>ical Journal, p. 147.
280 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

FEVERSHAM. In 1535, Henry Hatche desires to be buried

in the church of our Ladye there, before the
105
Bachelor s light.

FOUNTAINS ABBEY. In the inventory of the church is mentioned

one ymage of o r Ladye, silver and gilt, weighing
106
io4oz.

GLASTONBURY. The legendary history of the celebrated image

of Our Ladye of Glastonbury is that it was carved
by St. Joseph of Arimathea. In the old life of
this Saint printed by Pynson in 1520 it is stated
thai-
There Joseph lyued with other hermyttes twelfe,
That were the chyfe of all the company,
But Joseph was the chefe hym-selfe ;
There led they an holy lyfe and gostely.
Tyll, at the last, Jhesu the mighty,
He sent to Joseph thaungell gabryell,
Which bad hym, as the writyng doth specify,
Of our Ladye s Assumpcyon to bylde a chapell.
So Joseph dyd as the aungell hym bad,
And wrought there an ymage of our Lady ;

For seme her gret devocion he had,

to
And that same ymage is yet at Glastenbury,
In the same churche there ye may it se.
;

For it was the fyrst, as I vnderstande

That ever was sene in this countre ;
For Joseph it made wyth his owne hande. 107

The Abbot Henry of Blois, who was nephew

to Henrythe First, assigned, in the year 1126,
a pension of 50 s. for the support of a wax candle
which should burn continually before the image
of our 108
Ladye in the old church. It was this
Abbot Henry, and not Henry Swansey, as I
inadvertently stated under the heading of Glas
109
tonbury, who discovered the great sapphire.

HAVERING. In 1251, the Bailiff of Havering is commanded

... to cause a Marye with her Child, and the

105
Test. Vet. p. 661.
ice
Burton, Mon. Ebor. p. 144 ; see ante, p. 225.
107
Life of Joseph of Arimathia. Early Eng. Text Soc. vol. xliv. p. 43, lines
2OI 2l6.
198
John of Glastonbury, Hist, de Reb. Glast. p. 166.
109
See ante, p. 44.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 281

Annunciation of the Blessed Marye to be painted

in the Queen s chapel.
110
Writ tested at Waltham, August 26.
In 1253, the King commands the Bailiff of
Havering to wainscote his Majesty s upper chapel
at Havering, and to place an image of the Blessed
111
Virgin Marye in the lower chapel.
Writ tested at Havering, April 8.

HOUNSLOW. Underthe picture of the Blessed Virgin here,

were depainted,
saysWeever, these following verses
now almost quite worne out

Virginis intactce cum veneris ante figuram

Pnctereundo cave ne sileatur Ave. 112

IRTHLINGBOROUGH, In the belfry of the church there still exists

115
Co. NORTHAMPTON, an old image of our Blessed Ladye.

LONDON. Our Ladye of Newgate.

Our Ladye of the New Gate is intimately
associated with the memories of three of our
glorious English martyrs,
Father Campion, Father
Briant, and Father Sherwine of the Society of
Jesus.
"

In the splash and mud of a rainy December

from his
morning, Campion was brought forth
cell. There were two hurdles in waiting,
. . .

each tied to the tails of two horses. On one

Sherwine and Briant were laid and bound Cam ;

pion on the other. The procession took the

. . .

usual route by Cheapside and Holborn. ... A

little further, and the hurdles were dragged under

the arch of Newgate, which crossed the street

where the prison now stands. In a niche over
the gate stood an image of the Blessed Virgin
that was yet untouched with the axes and ham
mers of the iconoclasts. Campion, as he passed
himself and
beneath, with a great effort raised
saluted the Queen of Heaven, whom he hoped
so soon to see. Christian Issam, a priest, who

saw the martyrs on their way, always declared

in III.
lj o
Liberate Roll 35 Henry III. Ibid. 37 Henry
112
Anc. Fun. Mon. p. 530.
113
Churches of the Archdeanery of Northampton, p. 118.
 282 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

that they had a smile on their

faces, and as
they drew near Tyburn, actually laughed. There
was a cry raised among the people, But
they
laugh; they do not care for death. 114
"

SOUTH ELMHAM. In I J nn Tasburgh, by his will desires

473>

to be buried in the chapel of our Blessed

Ladye
St. Marye, on the north side of St. Peter s
Church,
before her image. 115

WADDINGTON, In one of the old painted windows here there

near isa representation of the Eternal Father
blessing
CLITHEROE. a nude female infant. Other similar examples
are to be found out of
England, and although
the design is by no means a
pleasing one, it is
intended nevertheless for the Immaculate Con
ception of our Blessed Ladye.

WALES.
In Wales there are one hundred and
forty-
three churches dedicated to our Blessed
Ladye,
fifty-three to St. David, and ninety-three to
St. Michael. 116

ABERGAVENNY. There is an image of our Ladye in the

Herbert chapel in the Priory church, which is
particularly interesting from an iconographical
point of view. It is now fixed in the south
wall at the back of the
sepulchral recess which
contains the tomb and of Richard Herbert
effigy
of Ewyas, Esquire, but it has evidently been
taken down from some other It is of
place.
alabaster, and is described as "a tall female
figure in the costume of a lady of the time,
(i.e., temp. Henry the Seventh), wearing a close-
gown, and over it a mantle fastened across
fitting
the chest with a cord, the ends of which
hang
down. On her head she wears a veil, which
falls down behind. Her arms are broken off, but
114
Edmund Campion. A Biography by Richard Simpson. London, 1867,
p. 318.
115
Suckling, vol. I. p. 231.
116
Rees, Essay on the Welsh Saints, &c. Lend. 1836, p. 40.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 283

there no appearance of having held a child in

is

them. Her
feet are supported by an angel, and
at her right side kneels a man in armour, and
at her left a lady; above these on either side
are two angels, one above the other, as if support

ing her. There is neither nimbus nor glory

apparent about the head, but above it there
seems to be an object like a triple crown held
by a figure above, whilst on either side of it
above her shoulders are two larger figures, having
very large glories or nimbi behind their heads,
which are, however, broken off. ... It seems
that the group can only represent the crowning
of the Virgin, and so Symonds, who saw them
uninjured, describes it, and gives a rude sketch
of it as it then was ; in this it is quite clear
that the object over the Virgin s head is a triple
crown which has been greatly injured, and that
the three figures represent the three Persons of
the Holy Trinity, Who are jointly placing the
crown on her head. Each figure himself wears
a crown, and the right hands are raised in the
act of benediction; the centre figure represents
the Father, having on His right hand the Son,
Who bore a cross, the stem of which may still
be seen, and on His left the Holy Spirit. 117
The three crowns are of rare occurrence. I
have two old prints which represent Our Ladye
of Loreto with a triple crown. They evidently
designate the coronation of our Blessed Ladye
as Queenof the Church Triumphant, the Church
Militant, and the Church Suffering Heaven,
Earth, and Purgatory; or, as she is described
in an Anglo-Saxon poem of the tenth century
contained in the Codex Exoniensis, Lady of the
"

118
Glory-host, of the world, and of hell," i.e., in

the sense of Purgatory.

CARDIGAN. Burriet says that that which drew most pil

grims and presents in those parts was an image

of our Ladye with a taper in her hand, which

117 Account
of the Ancient Monuments in the Priory Church, Abergavenny. By
Octavius Morgan, Esq. M.P. F.R.S. F.S.A. Newport, 1872, p. 65.
118
Lond. 1842, p. 17,
284 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

was believed to have burnt nine years, till one

foreswearing himself upon it, it went out, and
was then much reverenced and worshipped. 119 Its
history is given by Froude as follows The :
"

story of our Ladye s Taper at Cardigan has a

picturesque wildness, of which later ages may
admire the
picturesque beauty, being relieved
by three centuries of incredulity from the neces

sity of raising harsh alternatives of truth or false

hood. An image of the (Blessed) Virgin had
been found, it was said, standing at the mouth
of the Tivy river, with an Infant Christ in her
lap, and the taper in her hand burning. She
was carried to Christchurch in Cardigan, but
would not tarry there. She returned again and
again to the spot where she was first found ;

and a chapel was at last built there to receive

and shelter her. In this chapel she remained
for nine years, the taper burning, yet not con

suming, till some rash Welshman swore an oath

by her, and broke it; and the taper at once
went out, and could never be kindled again.
The visitors had no leisure for sentiment. The
image was torn from its shrine. The taper was
found to be a piece of painted wood, and on
experiment was proved submissive to a last
120
conflagration."

Barlow, the then Bishop of St. David s, writing

from Carmarthen on the last day of March to
"

Cromwell, says Concerning your lordship s

: . . .

lettres addressed for the taper of Haverforde West,

yer the receyte of them I had done refourmacion

and openly detected the abuse therof, all parties
which before tyme repugned penitently reconcyled.
But sythen I chaunced upon another taper of
moch greater credyte and of more shameful de
testation, called our Ladye s Taper of Cardigan,
which I have sente here to your lordship with
convenyent instructyons of that develish delu
"
121
sion.

110
Hist, of the Reformation, bk. iii. pt. i. p. 243.
120
Hist, of England. Lond. 1858, vol. iii. p. 287.
1S1
Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 183.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 285

Inclosed within this letter was the following

document :

Thexaminacion of Thomas Hore, Prior of

"

Cardigan, donatyve of the late monasterye of

122
Chersey, concernynge the pretensed taper of
our Lady there.
Inprimis, the said pry our, sayeth that he
"

hath been prior there for the space of five yeres.

"Item, that he never saw the taper of our
Lady within, but at the neder ende, where it
appered wood unto his judgemente.
"Item,
that he estemed the same to be a

holy relyque to his judgemente, accordinge to

the fame of the cuntrey, unto the tyme that he
saw it opened. And then he confesseth hym
selfe to have been deceaved therin.

"Item, that the image now situate in the

church of Cardigan, which ys used for a greate
pilgremage to this presente daye, was founde
standinge upon the ryver of Tyve, beinge an
arme of the see, and her Sonne apon her lappe,
and the same taper bernynge in her hande.

Item, that the said ymage was caryed from

"

thens unto Christes church of Cardigan, and the

sayd ymage wold not tarry there, but was founde
thre or fowre tymes in the place where now ys

buylded the Church of our Lady, and the taper

brunnynge in her hande, which contynued still
burnynge the space of nyne yeres without was-
tinge, untill the time that one forsware hymselfe
theron, and then it extincted, and never burned
after.

"Item, that sence the ceasinge of burnynge

of the sayd taper, it was enclosed and taken
for a greate relyque, and so worshipped and
kyssed of pylgremes, and used of men to sweare
by in difiicill and harde matters, whereof the
advauntage admounted to greate sommes of
money in tymes passed, payenge yerely of the
same xx ti nobles for a pencion unto thabbot of
Chersey."

m There was at Cardigan a small priory of Benedictine monks dependent on the

abbey of Chertsey in Surrey, founded before the year 1291.
286 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.
"

Thexaminacion of Syr Morgan Meredeth,

vicar of our Lady Church there.
Inprimis, he sayeth that he hath be vicar
"

there xxi ti
yeres.
Item, that prior Johan Frodsam tolde hym
"

that because the people toke the wax awaye, he

had put the tree beneth, that the people shuld
not dyminesh the substance of the taper, otherwise
he assenteth and agreeth in all thinges with the
priour.
"

dictis et vicario et
Injunctiones priori fade
injuncte, decimosexto die mensis Mercij, auctoritate
regia mediante.
"Inprimis, that the sayd priour and vicare,
alternis preach and declare the
vicibus, shall

Gospell or the Epistle reade apon that daye in

the mother tongue, exponynge the same syncerly
as farre as their lernynge will extende, openynge
to the people the abhominable idolatriand
disceatfull jugglinge of their predicessours there
in worshippinge and causinge to be worshipped
a pece of old rotten tymber, puttinge the people
in belefe the same to be a holy relique, and a

taper which had burned without consumynge or

wast, &c.
Item, the sayd priour and vicar shall so
"

preach every Sondaye and holyday betwixte this

and dominica in albis.
"

Item, the sayd pryour and vicare shall do

awaye or cause to be done awaye all maner
of clothes, fygured wax, delusyons of myracles,
shrowdes, and other entysementes of the igno-
rante people to pilgremage and ydolatry.
"Item,
that they shall take an ynventory of
all and every soch clothes, wax, shrowdes, and
other entysements, and the same shall converte
into the use of pore people, or otherwise to
some good use, makynge thereof a recknynge
in writinge, declaringe the trewe bestowynge and
usinge of the same.
"Item, that all and synguler these injunctyons
shall be inviolablye observed in payne of con-

tempte."

From this document it appears that Prior

 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 287

Frodsham had placed a small bit of wood at

the end of the candle to prevent the wax from

being taken away by pilgrims, and therefore the
false by Barlow, and propagated
story invented
on authority by others, is convicted and
his
refuted. There is no credible evidence that
the candle was found to consist of a piece of

painted wood.

PENRICE. Our Ladye of Penrice was a celebrated image.

By his will, dated June n, 1511, Thomas
Cadogan, valettus corone, leaves to the church
of Blessed Marye of Penrice his best tunic. 123

ST. DAVID S. Bishop Nicholls, who died in 1433, directed

his body to be buried in the chapel of our Ladye
and before her image. 124

SCOTLAND.
ABERDEEN. The armorial bearings are a pot of lilies, which

by their whiteness are an emblem of chastity, and

of the town being under the patronage of the
Blessed Virgin Marye. 125
i Our Ladye at the Bridge of Dee, described
.

as Our Ladye at the Brig. 120

Mention is made of the building of a bridge
over the Dee in 1459. On the 2nd of December
there is an entry in the Council Register that "the

vicar of Inverugg, Maister John of Levington, be

maister of works at building a bridge over the
Dee for ten years, and the alderman and council
to give 20 /. a year of their common purse;" but
itwas not completed. 127
In the next century, Bishop Gavin Dunbar
completed another bridge over the Dee, which
had been begun by his predecessor, Bishop
123
Test. Vet. p. $15.
124 David
Hist, and Antiq. of St. s. Lond. 1856, p. 122.
of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff.
125
Collections for a history Spalding Club,
1843, P- 52.
126
Ibid. p. 243. Atlas Marianus, p. 777, n. dccxxiv.
127
Spalding Club, 1844, p. 22.
288 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Elphinstone, and which he presented to the town,

as well as an endowment to keep it in repair. On
the ist of April, 1527, there is an
entry in the
Council Register that "the haill tovne in ane
voce, thankit gretly thar lord and of bischop
Aberden for the gret plesour and proffeit done to
lhame in the biging of the brig of Dee, and of the
gret offeris promittit to tham be his lordschip for
the vphald of the samyn," &c. And they
promised to deliberate upon the said offers, and
to give a finell ansuir to the said lord after
Pasche. 128
On the 3rd of June the reply was
given to the
bishop ; and the cautious terms in which it is
couched are very characteristic of the
worthy
provost and baillies of Aberdeen. After referring
to his lordship guid mynd s
"

inching of your . . .

of Dee, fundit ... for the

l(ordschipis) brig
perpetuall commond weill of the cuntra and of
ws; of the quhilkis guid deid and mynd God
eternall revard you for we ma nocht," they observe
that his lordship requires them and their succes
sors to keep the bridge in
repair "in the maist
souer wise cane be divisit be wismen and men of
craft in all thingis necessaris; and at
your lord
schip will infeft ws and our successouris in your
landis of Ardlar, to be haldin of
yow and your
successouris in few, we are hartlie contentit of the
same, makand ws souer thairof be the pape, the
prince, your chartour, and all wther handis
necesser, for we desyir na inconvenient, bot to be
maid souer ; quhilk we vnderstand in your l(ord-
129
schipis) guid mynd."

All was arranged satisfactorily, and on the 8th

of November the townsfolk were informed
by a
proclamation that the provost and baillies and
council had taken upon them the
responsibility of
keeping and ouphalding the brig of Dee, salang
as thai and thar successouris
bruikis, or may
bruik, peciabilly the landis of Ardlar, gevin and
assignit to thame be his l(ordschip) for the oup-
hald of the said brig ; and gif the sadis landis
beis ouptenit fra thame be the law, that this band
" 8
p. 116.
"9
Spalding Club, 1844, Ibid. p. 122.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 289

salbe of nayn availl frathinfurth and thai sail nocht

130
be indettit langar touphold the same."
Hitherto no mention occurs of the Ladye
chapel: but on the Qth of January, 1530, Sir
William Ray, vmquhile chaplane to our lady
"

131
chappell of the brig of Dee, deliuerit in iugment
to the bailzies and counsaill ane chaleis of siluer

ane ymage of siluer of our lady, baicht ouir gilt

. .
togidder with the key of the offerand stok, to
.

be kepit to the vtilitie and proffite of the said

132
chappell."
This chapel was at the north end of
the bridge.
The of this proceeding would
explanation
appear be that
to the chapel was temporarily
closed whilst some works were being carried out ;
for on the last day of February, 1530, James

Cheyne, "procuratour to the laird of Abirgeldie,

requirit Dauid Andersoun and Master Androwe

Tulydef, bailzies, sittand in iugment, to mak ane
esy gait and passage betuix the brig of Dee and
133
chapell of the samyn." This distinctly proves
that the chapel was not on the bridge.
A few days Abergeldie and
later the laird of
his accomplices were to be prosecuted for hewing
of the bulwark of the brig of Dee ; and on . . .

the 1 6th of March James Cheyne informed the

provost and baillies that he was included in the

indictment as "assistar and pairt takkar with the
laird of Abirgelde in the cutting of the bulwark of
the brig of Dee, maid far sawite of the cheppale
134
of the samyn."
On the 1 7th of May, 1530, the provost and
town council appoint our louit familiar seruitour,
"

Alexander Monypeny, mason at a yearly stipend

of five marks, for the quhilkis the said Alexander
sail daylye intend and aduert to oure brig of Dee,
135
bulwarkis and chappell of the samyn."

130
Ibid. p. 119.
131 This term, which often occurs, appears to be equivalent to "in council
assembled."
132
Ibid. p. 129.
133 Ibid. 126.
p.
134
Ibid. p. 130.
135
Ibid. p. 141.

T
290 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Hencethere appear to have been two chapels

one on the bridge of Dee of which I have
here,
no particulars, and one of our Ladye near the
bridge, called Our Ladye of the Brig of Dee.
Onthe 7th of July, 1559, Bishop Gordon, the
last Catholic bishop of Aberdeen, gave over the

silver work of the cathedral to the keeping of the

canons, and these articles were intrusted to the
care of three of the burgesses of Aberdeen, by
command of the provost and council, who gave
an acknowledgment; amongst them was our
Ladye chalice of the Brig chapel, weighing
20 oz. 136

Nigh Dee was a

to this chapel at the brig of
well dedicated to our Ladye ; of which Guppen-
berg, quoting from Wichmans, relates as follows :

"

Sacello fons propinquus est, etiam Deipara

sacer. Catholicorum non tnterrupta pietas satis
probavit Deiparam hie miraculose benefaam olim
fuisse, quod, ut facilius fidem inveniret, nostro saculo
expertus est hczreticus, magno fidei nostra bono, sed
malo sues, quin et suo is cum templo et Virgini:

nocere non posset, ad fontem consedit, et alvum

exoneravit: pauca sed gravia fatus in Virginis
ludibrium ; non tamen inultus. Fames canina
hominem torsit ita, ut vix uni prandio satis esset
quod alias suffecerat duobus, vel etiam plurimis ;
ventre tamen semper obstructo ac sensim intumescente :
dum tandem horrenda morte animam evomeret.
Fassus est se ultionis divina exemplum esse, monu-
itque adstantes frequenter Matrem Dei ne contem-
nerent. Quia tamen fidem veram amplexus non est,
sine spe sahitis e vita migravit." 137
A chapel also stood near the old bridge of
Don, which spans the river Don near old Aber
deen. In 1443, the magistrates of Aberdeen voted
the admission fees of a burgess of gild to be paid
to Sir William Ettles, the chaplain, for defraying
the expense of repairing the bridge. 138

136
Keith s Scottish Bishops. Edinburgh, 1824, p. 129.
137
Atlas Marianus, p. 777. Cf. also Brabantia Mariana. Antv. 1632, torn. i.

1.
2, c. ii.
p. 297.
138
Cf. Kennedy, Annals of Aberdeen, 1818, sut>, ann.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 291

II. St. Nicholas.

This church had thirty-one altars ;
the curate
was chaplain of our Ladye s altar. 139
Our Ladye of Pity in the vault.
The choir of this church has underneath it a
chapel dedicated to Our Ladye of Pity, where a
bursar of the canon law in theKing s College was
always chaplain. It is now called the Pitty vault,

and the plumbers are allowed to melt their lead

in 140
it.

III. The Cathedral.

Four images of our Ladye are recorded.
1. Our Ladye of Pity, which stood on the
south side of the altar of the Blessed Virgin in
the nave of the church in navi ecclesice^
Before this image stood a large candelabrum on
which to burn candles, presented by one of the
canons of Aberdeen, Master John Clatt. 142
2. The
image of our Ladye of Pity. It
silver

weighed 120 oz., and was presented to the high

altar by the treasurer, Master Andrew Lyell, on
the feast of the Visitation, 1499. And the Bishop
of Aberdeen desired that it should be solemnly
carried round the cathedral on all the festivals of
the glorious Virgin Marye, and to all who should
go before, or follow it, in the procession, he granted
an indulgence of forty days. 143
3. The inventory of 1436 says that the dean
of Aberdeen, Master Richard Forbes, amongst
other donations, had given two images, one of our
Blessed Ladye, and the other of St. Maurice, to
144
the high altar.

4. The fourth escaped destruction until the

5th of August, 1640. Its history is thus given by

Spalding :

"

On Wednisday, 5th August, the Erll of

Seafort, collonell, maister of Forbes," and others,
139
Coll. for a Hist, of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 206.
140
Ibid. p. 209.
141
Registrant Episcopates Aberdonensi$. Edinb. 1845. Spalding Club, vol. ii.

!6 9 .
142
Ibid. p. 148.
143
Ibid. pp. 169, 170.
144
Ibid, p. 137.
292 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye,

cam all ryding wp the get, cam to Maucher kirk,

"

ordanit our blissit Lord Jesus Christ his armes to

be hewen out of the foirfroont of the pulpit
thairof, and to tak doun the portrait of our Blessid
Virgyn Marie and her deir Sone Babie Jesus in
hir armes, that had stand since the vpputting

thairof, in curious wark wnder the sylring at the

wastend of the pend, quhairon the gryte stepill
standis, on movit quhill now ; and gave ordour to
collonell, maister of Forbes, to sie this done,
quhilk he with all diligence obeyit and besydis, :

whair there wes ony crucifixis set in glassin

windois, this he causit pull out in honest menis
houssis. He causit ane mesoun strik out Christis
armes in hewin wark, on ilk end of bischop
Gawin Dumbaris tomb ; and siclike chissel out the
name of Jesus, drawin ciphar wayis IHS, out of
the tymber wall on the foirsyd of Maucher lyll,
anent the consistorie dur. The crucifix on the
Oldtoun cross dung doun; the crucifix on the
Newtoun cross cloissit wp, being loth to brak the
stane; the crucifix on the wast end of Sanct
Nicholas kirk in New Abirdene dung down, quhilk
wes neuer troublit before. Bot this diligent
collonell, maister of Forbes, keipit not place long
tyme thaireafter, bot wes schortlie casseirit, as ye
may sie, folio 288 ; and efter diverss fortouns at
last he, with his lady, went to Holland to
145
serve."

When the English were carrying fire and

sword into Scotland in 1544, the bishop of Aber
deen, William Stuart, ordered all the jewels,
ornaments, and treasures of the cathedral to be
taken into the country for safety by some of his
friendsand retainers. Scarcely had they crossed
the Don, when they were treacherously attacked
by James Forbes of Corssinday, attended by some
satellites
"

sons of Satan/ who not having God

before their eyes, by instinct of the devil, as it is
presumed, carried off all the jewels and plate,
with the exception of six chalices, which were
spared for the use of the cathedral; and the
141 Memorials of the Troubles in Scotland and England, A.D. 1624 1645. By
John Spalding. Spalding Club, 1850, vol. i. p. 313.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 293

objects so plundered were only restored to the

bishop on the payment of six hundred marks. It

seems, however, that a portion only was given

back, the remainder was carried off by Forbes.
Several articles were applied to profane uses, and
never restored. 146
The first notice of the Reformation at Aber
deen occurs on the 4th of January, 1559, when
the baillies explained that certain strangers and
some of the townsmen hes enterit to the blak- "

freris and quhyt freiris of this toun, and spulzeit

thair placis, and takin away the gere and gudis of
samen with the tymmar wark and insicht, togiddir
with the leid of the kirkis, and now are enterit
apoun the ruiffis of the kirkis and biggingis, and
takand away the sklayttis, tymmer, and stanis
thairof applyand the samen to thair awin particular
uses."
147
How invariably the so-called "Refor

mation
"

begins everywhere with plunder ! The

baillies therefore requested to know whether the
town thought it expedient to preserve these for
the "

commond weill of the toune and specially

Goddis glory, and his trew
for the furthesettin of
word and prechours tharof; and that the toune
may be the moir habill to concur and assist for the
defence of the libertie of the realme, expelling ot

strangeris, and suppressing of idolatrye."

148
The
assembled townsmen, with one exception, autho
rized the treasurer of the burgh to intromit with
the friars places and property, for the purposes
above specified. ... In a few days the treasurer
explained that he could not watch so closely as
was requisite for the preservation of the friars
property "quhairthrow thair wald inlayk mekill
thair of without diligent attendance war takin
and four persons were elected
thairto,"
to
"

awayt
149
on the doun taking and keping of the samen."

These persons were also ordered to

"

resayf in
thair keeping the chalices, silvar wark, and orna
ments of thair paroche kirk, quhill the toune
consultit quhat were expedient to be done thair-
witht."

U6 ur Council
Reg. Epis. Aberd. p. 195. Register, p. 315.
148
Ibid.
U9 Ibid. p. 316.
 294 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

On the 1 2th of January, the provost, Thomas

Menzies of Petfodellis, 150 who had been absent
from the previous meetings, when these proceed
ings were sanctioned, protested against them ; and
his protest was adhered to by fifteen of the
151
inhabitants, but nothing followed of it.

"Amongst the siluar wark and ornamentis

were :

"
152
Imprimis, the eucharyst of four pound and
two unce of silver.
Item, ane chalice of our Lady of Pity in the
"

wowlt, nyntene unce.

"Item, our Lady chalice of the sowth yill,
nyntene unce and ane quart unce.
"

Item, our Lady chalice of brig cheppell

twenty unce.
"Which on the isth of January, 1559, four
burgesses of Aberdeen acknowledged to haf
1 "
resawit."

On the nth of March itwas resolved to

support
"

the Congregatioun," and a tax of ^400

was levied to defray the expense of forty men of
war, who were to be sent to its assistance. 154
On the 1 6th of June following, the chaplains
of St. Nicholas church presented a supplication to
making mention
the council, :

That quhair thai ar suirly aduertist and it is

"

notowrly knawin that certane persones in to the

southt partis of Scotland hes interpryssit at thair
awin hands, without ony ordor or consent of the
authorite to distroy kirks, religious places, and
the ornaments and polacie of the same, thairfor
desyrand the provest, baillies, and counsell to
provyd the esiast way of remeid as thai sell think
guid, for defending and mentening of thair said
proche kirk, and preserving of the chalices, siluar
wark, kaippis, and ornaments of the same, and to

150
The family of Menzies of Pitfodels continued to adhere to the Catholic Church
until the family became extinct at the death of the late John Menzies of Pitfodels
without issue in 1843.
101
Council Register, p. 318.
152
the ciborium.
i.e.
153
Council Register, p. 320.
164
Ibid. p. 322.
Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 295

put the same in suir firmance and keiping quhill

the said uproir and tumilt war put to tranquilite
be the antient and wyse counsell of the realme.
Quhilk bill being red, and the contents thairof
understand and considderit, the hail counsell
thocht expedient to transport the townis euidents
furth of the kirk, and siclyk the gret occryst,

chalices, siluer wark, and the maist coistly orna

ments of the kirk, and to put the same in suir
firmance and keeping, and ane invitor to be maid
thairupoune, and to intromett, preserve, and keip
the tounis euidentis, nemit and chesit Thomas
Menzies, prouest, Dauid Mar, Maister Patrick
Ruyerford, and Walter Cullane, quhilkis accepit
the said cuir and charge upoun thame." 155
On the 7th of July, 1559, Bishop Gordon
delivered over the silver work of the cathedral to
the keeping of the canons. To Mr. John Leslie,
parson of Oyne, the image of our Ladye, weighing
114 oz. And subsequently to the Earl of Huntly,
two crowns with precious stones, in custody, upon
his bond of custody and restitution, given Nov.
156
1559
On the 6th January, 1561, the haill toun beand
lauchfully warnit to this day to heir and se the
siluar work, keppis, and ornaments of thair
parroche kirk ropit, and the same to be sauld and
disponit to thame that vil offer maist for the same;
and the money gotten for the samyn to be
applawdit to the commond weill and necessar
adois of this guid toun . . . the grytest sovme
offerit for the same wes ane hundredth fourtie tua

pound, be Patrick Menzies for the keppis. xxs.

for ilk vnce of silver, xvis. for ilk stone of brass

extending in the haill to the sovme of fyw

hundredth xl lib. money of Scotland. . . . The
said day Gilbert Menzies and Gilbert Collysone
dissentit to the said roiping, selling, and dispo-
sicioun for thame selffis and their adherans, lyk
as thai haue discernit and protestit in sic caices
ewer obefoir, as thai alleigit, and tuk act of court
157
tharwpoun.
155
Council Register, p. 323.
156 1S7
Keith, pp. 125, 126. Ibid. p. 329.
296 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Our Ladye of Good Success.

In a chapel built on the north side of the
church of Finisterre in Brussels, there stands over
the altar an image of our Blessed Ladye called
of Good Success." This image is stated to have
"

been formerly in the Cathedral at Aberdeen.

Much has been written about it one writer seems ;

to have copied the other, omitting or adding

details, and as these writers are principally

foreigners, much confusion has arisen. Wichmans
is the principal author on the subject; he gives
the substance of what was communicated to him
by the Prior of the Augustinians at Brussels, in
1628, in whose church the image was originally
placed; but his account contains some strange
anachronisms, and Guppenberg has followed
him.
A Scottish priest, Father Blackall, gives a
somewhat different account, and I will begin with
him. He says :

was very scant of money.

"

I I had non

but what I gotte for saying the first Messe, every

morning, at Notre-Dame, de bone successe, a
chapelle of great devotion, so called from a statu
of our Ladye, which was brought from Aberdein,
in the north of Scotland, to Ostend by a merchant
of Ostend, to whom it was given in Aberdein.
And that same day that the shippe in which it
was did arrive at Ostend, the Infanta did winne a
battaile against the Hollanders, the people thinking
that our Ladye, for the civil reception of her statu,
did obteane that victorye to the princesse, who
did send for the statu to be brought to Brusselle,
wher the princesse, with a solemne procession, did
receave itat the porte of the toune, and place it in
this chappel, wher it is much honored, and the
chapelle dedicated to our Ladye of bonne successe,
which befor was pouer and desolat, now is riche
and wel frequented. The common beleiff of the

vulgar people ther is, that this statu was throwen

into the sea at Aberdein, and carried upon the
waves of the sea miraculously to Ostend. So
easie a thing it is for fables to find good harbour,
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 297

wher verities would be beaten out with cud-

158
gelles."

Wichmans, writing in 1632, relates that this

image is said to have been venerated in the
Cathedral of Aberdeen for six hundred years, si
fides traditioni crcdimus. Bishop Gavin Dunbar
had a great devotion for it, and daily he would
repair from his palace, through
a private door, to
the Cathedral to say his prayers before it. It is

also said that on one occasion whilst he was in

prayer before he heard a voice saying, Well
it,
"

fare thee, Gavin thou wilt be the last bishop

!

here who will obtain eternal salvation This

"

tale seems highly improbable, for Bishop Dunbar,

who died on the iQth of March, 1532, was
succeeded by two other Catholic bishops; and,
moreover, so far as I am able to ascertain, it is
not mentioned by any contemporary writer, nor,
in fact, earlier than a hundred years after his
death. This excellent bishop enjoyed a high and
widely-spread reputation for holiness of life, and
his body was found incorrupt when disinterred by
the Reformers. Wichmans, who, as I have just
said, wrote in 1632, places the death of Bishop
Dunbar as having occurred two centuries

previously !

In the month of April, 1863, spending a few

days in Brussels, Iwas most anxious, on archaeo

logical grounds, to see the image of our Ladye of
Good Success, for which an antiquity of nine
hundred years was claimed, and being introduced
to the cure M. Van Genechten, I requested to be
,

permitted to inspect the statue divested of the

stiff robes with which it was disfigured. My
request was refused on the plea that it would be
irreverent to deshabiller Notre Dame.
Subsequently the curd seems to have changed
his ideas in regard to the custom of dressing our
Ladye, for her image now appears divested of its

silk and velvet robes, and it has been repainted.

He has done a good service, for no doubt can
158
A Breiffe Narration of the
Services done to three noble Ladyes. By Gilbert
Blakhall, Preist of the Scots Mission in France, in the Low
Countries, and in

Scotland, 16311649. Spalding Club, 1844, p. 43.

 298 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

exist as to the date of the

image, unless possibly
it
may have been recarved after it was to brought
Brussels, which
by no means likely. It is a
is

standing image with our Lord on the left arm of

His Mother, and the earliest date which can be as
signed to it is late in the fifteenth century; and in
this opinion I am confirmed by a learned English
architect, who never fails to say an Ave in this
chapel when he chances to be in Brussels. There
fore all that can be said of this image, with
any
degree of certainty, is that it was one of several
which were in the Cathedral of Aberdeen, and
that it escaped destruction.
For a while it was preserved by some Catho
lics, after it had been removed from the Cathedral.
It then fell into the hands of the Reformers, who

although often resolved to destroy it, were provi

dentially moved never to carry their impious
scheme into effect. At
as if impelled by some
last,
irresistible
power, they handed it over to a
man,
who hid it in his house, and from whom it came
into the possession of William Laing, who is
described as the Procurator of the King of Spain.
He determined to send it as a present to the

Infanta, Isabella, and therefore placed it on board

of a Spanish ship which was then lying in the
harbour of Aberdeen. The captain made sail for
Dunkirk, and escaped the Dutch pirates who were
infesting the channel by being convoyed by two
English men-of-war. He delivered the image into
the hands of Father de los Rios, an Augustinian
in the suite of the Archduchess, who was then at
Dunkirk. She destined it for the chapel of the

palace at Brussels, but Father de los Rios begged

that it might be
given to the newly-built Augus
on the 3rd of May, 1626,
tinian church, to which,
it was solemnly conveyed. On this occasion the
image of our Ladye was arrayed in a magnificent
robe, and adorned with the jewels of the Arch
duchess, who followed the procession on foot, and
for whose Good Success High Mass was cele
" "

brated in the church. This is the origin of the 159

title.
159
Brabantia Mariana, t. i. lib. ii.
pp. 299 303 ; Atlas Marianus, p. 776,
n. dccxxvii.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 299

At the French Revolution the image of our

Ladye of Good Success was saved by Mr. Morris,
an English Catholic, who kept it till 1805, when it
was restored to the Augustinians and finally in ;

1814 it was removed to the church of Finisterre,

and placed in a tabernacle by the side of St.
Joseph s altar. In 1852, M. Van Ghenechten built
the side chapel where it now stands over the altar.
It seems highly probable that the history
which is told of this image belongs, in reality, to
one of the other statues in the Cathedral of
Aberdeen, which did not escape destruction. If
it had been of the age assigned to it, it would

have been a seated image, and of the type of the

seal of the monastery of St. Marye s, Kelso, which
is and earliest British seal representing
the finest
our Ladye and her Divine Son that has come
under my notice. 160

AYR. The monastery of the Observantines was

founded here in 1474; and Wadding mentions an
image of our Blessed Ladye, which was greatly
venerated there, and brilliant for its miracles. 161

DESKFORD. There was a chapel of our Ladye of Pity at

Skieth, whose image in wood was preserved
there. 162

EDINBURGH. Our Ladyeof Holyrood.

In the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Lauriston Street, there is an image of our Ladye
holding her Divine Son in her arms, which
formerly was in Holyrood. For many years it
was in the possession of the family of the Earls of
Aberdeen; and at a sale which took place in
London after the death of George, fourth Earl of

Aberdeen, in 1860, it was purchased by a dealer

in old furniture, of Peterborough, by name Water-
who
head, placed it over the door of his shop.
One day in
1865, as the writer was passing
through Peterborough, the image attracted his

160
Laing, Catalogue of Scottish Seals .
Edinburgh, 1850, p. 189, n. 1057.
161
Annales Roma; 1735, * xi y P- U -
7>
n xxxviii.
-

162
Collections, &>c. ut sup. p. 664.
300 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

attention,and on learning its history he purchased

it. was in a delapidated condition, and after
It

causing it to be repaired, the writer sent it to the

Church of the Sacred Heart, with the condition,
that if the Fathers of the Society of Jesus should
at any time leave Edinburgh, this image of our

Ladye should revert to the Sodality chapel at

Stonyhurst College.

HADDINGTON. Hector Boece, writing under the approximate

date of 1355, says :

"Nocht lang efter, King Edward came to

Hadingtoun, to the gret dammage of all pepill

lyand thairabout. Ane part of his nevy spulyeit
the Kirk of our Lady, callit the Quhit Kirk, and
returnit with the spulye thairof to thair schippis.
Bot thair sacralege was not lang unpunist ; for
suddunly rais ane north wind, and raschit all

thair schippis sa violently on the see bankis, and

sandis, that few of thaim eschapit, saif only sa

mony asswame to land. King Edward, in con-

temptioun of God, becaus his navy was trubillit
in this maner, persewit all abbayis and religius

placis quhare he come, with gret cruelte. Treuth

is, ane Inglisman spulyeit all the ornamentis that

was on the image of our Lady, in the Quhite

Kirk and in continent the crucifix fel doun on
;

his heid, and dang out his harnis." 163

Our Ladye of Haddington is mentioned in the
Atlas Marianus. 164

LEITH. The seal of the borough represents our Blessed

Ladye with her Divine Son, seated under a
tabernacle, in a boat.This representation has a
greatresemblance to the ancient type of our
Ladye of Boulogne-sur-Mer, but our Ladye of
Boulogne bore our Lord in her left arm; in the
seal of Leith He is in His Mother s right arm ;

this variation, however, may be due to the engraver

of the seal.

163
Hist,and Chron, of Scotland, reprint of orig. ed. c. 1536. Edinb. 1821,
vol. ii. Buke xv. c. xiv. p. 446.
164 P. 798, n. dccxlix. and described as Sancta Maria Alba.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 301

It would be interesting if the circumstances

under which the town of Leith adopted our Ladye
of Boulogne for its seal, could be brought to light.
In the middle ages devotion to our Ladye of
Boulogne was widely spread, and confraternities
and chapels in her honour were often established.
Thus early in the fourteenth century, the inhabi
tants of Paris erected a church of our Ladye of
Boulogne Menus, aat
village near Saint-Cloud,
which became a favourite pilgrimage for those
who were unable to make the longer one to
Boulogne-sur-Mer. Menus soon became called
Boulogne-sur-Seine, and the forest in its neighbour
hood the Bois de Boulogne. Boulogne-lez-
Chambord, Boulogne-la-Grasse, and Boulogne-sur-
Gesse are believed to owe their names to similar
foundations, but in these latter-named places the
165
memory of our Ladye of Boulogne has perished.
Was any such foundation ever made at Leith ?

MUSSELBURGH. Our Ladye of Loreto.

by approved authors," says Father
find
"

Tursellino, "that manie yeares agone, two churches

were erected to our B. Ladie of Loreto in the
Kingdome of Scotland ; the one in the towne
Perth, otherwise called S. Johns, the other by the
high way that goeth to Missilburrow, not far from
Edinburrow, the chief citie of Scotland. In both
places, the B. Virgin of Loreto was most reli-
giouslie reuerenced; and that in the suburbs of
Missilburrow was most famous for the resort and
concourse of pilgrims, and the miracles of our
B. Ladie, as long as the Catholic religion remayned
in Scotland. But after Caluins pestiferous doctrine

began and raigne in that kingdome (here

to rage
tofore most religious) those furies destroied that
sacred house of our B. Ladie, but so notwith-
stading, that the mines therof might remaine,
both as tokens of their madnes, and also as
manifest signes of the ancient religion of the
Scottish people. And this (as we vnderstand)
was the beginning of the Chappell of Missilburrow.
Manie yeares agone, in the attire and habit of a
365
Haignere, Hist, de N. Dame de Boulogne, pp. 77, no, in, 401.
3O2 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Pilgrime, a Scottish Eremite came to Loreto to

salute the B. Virgin, who at his departure carried
with him into his countrey, a small part of the
sacred roofe, and begging monie of godlie men,
not far from the towne of Missilburrow, erected
a little church some thing like to the Sacred
House of Loreto; which was verie famous, as well
for reuerence of the sacred reliques, which were
placed there, as also for the deuotion of the
people to the B. Virgin herself (whose name
was illustrious among them) vntill, as we said

before, the mad furie of Heretick s threw it

downe."
160

This chapel stood at the east end of the town,

with the hermit s cell adjoining ; during the
ravages of the Earl of Hertford in May, 1544,
he destroyed this famous chapel, with a part of
the town : it was soon repaired, but it was finally
abolished at the Reformation, and in 1590 the
materials of the chapel, which had once so many
votaries, were converted to building the Tolbooth
of Musselburgh. 167

NEWHAVEN. On the festival of the Annunciation, 1507,

James IV. offered 145. in our Ladye chapell of
the New Havin. 168
The of Newhaven represents a demi-
seal

figure of our Ladye and her Divine Son sur

rounded by a flamboyant aureola. It appears

appended to a charter given by Robert Leslie,

principal baillie of our Ladye s Port of Grace, alias
Newhaven, A.D. J52O. 169

PAISLEY. George Schaw, abbot of the Cluniac monastery,

enlarged and beautified it, and enclosed the
gardens and orchards with a wall of stone, a
mile in circuit, in 1484. In one of the corners
of this wall on the outer side was a niche in

166
Hist, of our Blessed Ladye of Loreto, bk. 3, c. 5. p. 236. Douay, 1608.
167
Carlisle, Topographical Diet, of Scotland. Lond. 1812, sub voce.
168
Letters of Ric. III. and Hen. VII. vol. ii. p. Ixviii. Rolls Edit.
169
Laing, Cat. of Scottish Seals, p. 216, n. 1195.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 303

which stood an image of our Blessed Ladye, with

these lines under her feet :

f)iu ne baDe Hi A nigi Di verts* 3lic Q9aria.

170
uempet gttte bae qut ttfct nicit flue.
$>tt

PERTH. The church of St.John the Baptist had forty

altars, all endowed; amongst which were five
dedicated to our Blessed Ladye, and one to
St. Joseph :

1. Our Ladye s altar.

2. Altar of Our Ladye s Presentation, richly
endowed.
3. Altar of Our Ladye of Consolation.
4. Altar of the Salutation of our Ladye and
St. Gabriel.

5. Altar of the Visitation, or Our Ladye of

Grace, 171

II. Chapel of Our Ladye of Loreto.

This chapel, vulgarly designated Allareit,

stood on the north side of the head of South
Street. The circumstances connected with its

foundation are unknown. Mr. Lawson adds in

a note that unlike similar chapels of our Ladye
of Loreto in other places, the one at Perth seems
to have had no miraculous influence. 172

Our Ladye s chapel at the Bridge.

III.
This chapel was situated at the foot of the
High Street or North Street, near the old bridge.
No however wearied, omitted to put up
traveller,
his Ave. l7 A is described as an old building
It
as anciently as A.D. 1210, when it was consider

ably injured by a fearful inundation of the Tay.

It was afterwards rebuilt farther from the river,

and a portion of it is known as the Old Prison,

having been so appropriated after the Refor
mation. With the exception of part of St. John s

170
Keith, ubi supra, p. 413.
171
Book of Perth, pp. 61 64. By John Parker Lawson, M.A. Edinb. 1847. In
the list these altars are numbered respectively, 8, 1 7, 22, 29, 30 ; and that of
St. Joseph, 36.
172
Ibid. p. 79.
178
Ibid. p. 99.
 304 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

Church, this is the only remaining ecclesiastical

memorial of the ancient hierarchy in Perth. 174

STOWE, formerly Across the Tweed, six miles to the west of

WEDALE. that heretofore noble and eminent monastery of
Mailros, stood Gwaedol, or Wedale, in English
Woe-dale, in Latin Vallis Doloris. It is now
called Stowe. 175 Here was the Church of St.Marye,
where were once preserved, in great veneration,
the fragments of that image which
King Arthur
on his return from Jerusalem 176 bore upon his
shoulders, and through the power of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the Holy Marye, put the Saxons
to flight, and pursued them the whole day with
great slaughter. Nennius says that Arthur portavit
imaginem crucis Christi et Sanctce Maria semper
177
Virginis super humcros suos ; Matthew of West
minster, that the image of our Ladye was painted
on his and Henry of Huntingdon the
shield;
same. 178 Now, as in Welsh ysgwyd is a shoulder,
and ysguydd a shield, a Welsh original must have
been differently translated by them. 179
This is the image of our Ladye which Guppen-
berg gives as two different ones in the Atlas
Marianus, viz., Miraatlosa Regia de Monte Badonico,
and de Clyfieo.
A little above the church is a very fine
perennialspring known by the name of the
; and a huge stone, recently removed
Ladye s well
in forming the new road, but now broken to

pieces, used to be pointed out as impressed with

the (Blessed) Virgin Marye s foot. 181

It is unnecessary for me to notice here the

174
Book of Perth, p. 76.
178
Scrdptured Stones of Scotland, append, to pref. f. Ixvii. By J. Stuart, Spalding
Club. 1866.
176
Pilgrims from Britain are mentioned by St. Jerome. There is therefore no
historical improbability in the legends of Arthur s pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre.
Merlin, pt. iii. p. Ixxvi.
17r
Monumenta Historica Britannia;, p. 73. 1848.
178
See ante, pp. 102, 103.
179
Arthurian Localities, Merlin, pt. iii.
p. Ixxvi. Early English Text Society.
180
See ante, pp. 86, 102.
181
Skene, Four Ancient Books, vol. ii. p. 412, quoted in Arthurian Localities,
p. Ixxvi. ut supra.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 305

arguments about King Arthur, and the theories

in regard of the Arthurian localities.

TARBAT. Near Tarbat, in the Synod of Ross, there is

a plentiful spring of water which continues to
182
bear the name of Tobair Mhnir, or Marye s well.

IRELAND.
DUBLIN. I. Our Ladye at the Dame s Gate.
Before the first arrival of the Anglo-Normans
in Ireland in the twelfth century, the eastern gate
of the city of Dublin, styled La Porte de Sainte
Marie del Dam, stood at the western extremity
of the line of street at present known as Dame
Street, contiguous to the Church of our Ladye.
The Northmen, who landed in 1171, endeavouring

to regain the city from which they had been

driven by the Anglo-Normans, directed their main
efforts against this gate, which was built with

towers, and armed with a portcullis. Until the

Reformation, a statue of our Ladye stood in a

niche above it. 183

II. Our Ladye of St. Marye s Abbey.

This image is mentioned by Ware in con
nection with Lambert Simnel, A.D. 1487. "They

say that the crown wherewith he was crowned

was borrowed from the statue of the Blessed
Virgin Marye kept in a church called by her
name, situate near the gate called the Dame s
1S4
Gate."

This is the legend of the origin of the abbey.

"About the time that the O
Tooles swayed,
an honest goodman, called Gilmohollmot, lived
between the plane called Clonlife, where it now
standeth, and Clontarf, by the river. It pleased
God to trye the patience of the man, and his wife

Rosina, by visiting them with blindness, which

afflictionthey bore with greate submission and
patience, never repining at the said affliction, but
182 StatisticalAccount of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 431.
183 1861.
Gilbert, Hist, of the City of Dublin, vol. p. 256.
ii.

184
Annals, ad. ann. 1487.
306 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

giving thanks to God, knowing that they deserved

greater punishment for their iniquities. In this
state they lived a greate
while, disposing very
charitably of what God sent them, distributing it
unto the poore. One day as he sat on a greate
logge of wood before his doore, after distributing
to the needy what he had, of a sudden he smelled
a very sweet savour, with which he was so much
surprised, thathe groped about him, feeling the
block of wood
that he sat on, trying whether he
could find that which smelled so sweet; at last
he wondered very much to feel a branch that
sprung out of the block of wood, yet feeling again,
his hand lighted upon an apple though it was in
winter time; the man took the apple and eat
of immediately he received his sight, and
it;

calling his wife Rosina, he feeling another apple

on the same branch, he gave it to her,
by which
she received her sight also; and another
being
left he
bethought with himself of Malaghlin, the
King of Meath, who afterwards was called Mala-
chias the Great, being Monarch of all
Ireland,
who was at that time blind in the
monastery of
Timonshall Tharagh, and did believe that this
apple might be designed for him, wherefore he
and his wife began their journey towards him,
and being come where he was he gave him the
apple, and upon eating the same, the sayd
King
received his sight and blessed God.
Hearing a
whole relation of this miracle from Gilmohollmot,
he desired him to hand him that place called
Clonlife, and in exchange of it, he would give
him twice as much ground, more beneficial, else
where, to which offer Gilmohollmot agreed, and
consented thereunto. King Malachias dedicated
the ground to the honour of our Blessed
Ladye
for a monastery of fryars; who were bound to

praise God and honour

her name.
remarkable that this ancient statue,
"It is

representing our Ladye with her Divine Son in

her arms, is carved out of the trunk of a
tree,
and that our Lord holds an apple in His
hand."

In the year 1541 this abbey was seized, and

 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Lactye. 307

its "The statue of .

property sequestrated. . .

the Blessed Virgin, already mentioned, was con

demned by the modern iconoclasts, and as it was
supposed, to the flames.
consigned One half
of it was actually burnt, but it was that part
which, when placed in a niche, is not much
missed. 185 The
part was carried by
other a
devout Catholic to a neighbouring inn-yard, where
with its face buried in the ground, and the hollow
trunk upwards, it was for years con
appearing
cealed, until it was restored to its original use
in the oldchapel of St. Hicham, Marye s Lane,
grown up from the ruins of the abbey to which
186
it had belonged."
This image is now
venerated in the Carmelite
Church in which it was secured by
Dublin, for
the Very Rev. Dr. Spratt. Within the last few
years, saysa writer whom I have quoted, the
ancient silver crown with which it was adorned,

was taken from our Ladye s head, sold for its

intrinsic value as old plate, and melted down.
He also adds: "The crown itself we have often
seen exposed for sale in the window of the
jeweller to whom was a double
it was sold. It

arched crown, such as appears on the coins of

187 But the
Henry the Seventh, and his only."

double arched crown was not confined to the

coins of Henry the Seventh. Even the groat of
Perkin Warbeck bears it.

III. 5. Maria Alba : I presume Our Ladye

ad Nives.
The Book of Obits records the death, on the
loth of the Kalends of August, of John White,
a brother of our
formerly Mayor of Dublin, and
"

who bequeathed a girdle of the

congregation,"

price of 2os. to the image

of Our Ladye "the
as Mayor of
John White
188 occurs
White."

185
This partial burning is noticed by another writer (Dublin Penny Magazine,
pp. 308, 309, vol. i.
no. 39, 1833). The flames in fact, under providential guidance,
had left the statue for its original purpose very nearly as serviceable as ever.
186
Battersby, The Jesuits in Dublin, pp.
1820. Dublin, 1854.
187 Dublin Penny Magazine, ubi. sup.
188 P. 33-
 308 Old English Devotion to our Blessed
Ladye.
Dublin in 1424, 1431, and
1432, and is the only
one of that name on the roll. 189
DROGHEDA. In I34S. Richard
Fitzwilliam, Mayor of Dro-
gheda had licence to assign four acres of land
adjoining the same, for increasing and
maintaining
lights before the image of our Blessed Ladye. 190
KILCORBAIN. In the Dominican
priory here, there was an
image of our Ladye called "of the Rosary,"
celebrated for miracles. 191

LIMERICK. A commission before the King s Commissioners

was held here on the 1
3th of February, 33 Henry
the Eighth, when it was deposed that :

"

Wee doe find that in the

3oth yeare of King
Henry the Eighth, Edmond, Archbishop of Cassel
and Walter Cowley, the
King s solicitor, taking
uppon them to be the King s did Commissioners,
take of the image of the
holly roods, shoes of
silver, wheing twentie-seaven unces
troy weight.
Wherein weare divers stones of the value
whereof
wee cannot tell. And alsoe did take the
image
of our
Ladye of the said church showes of silver
weighing six unces with divers stones, and fifteene
buthons of silver valued at three shillings *d
i92
Strt

MUCKROSS FORMERLY A misprint in Wadding has led many astray.

The image described as Imago B.M. V. Iria-
is

lacensis, instead of Irialacensis, and Dr.

Northcote
gives it as Our Ladye of Tralee. 193 It is the
only
Irish sanctuary of our
Ladye mentioned in the
Atlas Marianus by
Gupperberg, who quotes from
19 ^
Wadding.
Themonastery of Oirbhealach (anglicised
Irrelagh by Ware) at Carraig-an-chinil, at the
eastern end of Lochlein in the
diocese of Ardfert
in Munster was founded Franciscan Friars by for
MacCarthy More, Prince of Desmond (Donnell,
the son of Teige) and the chiefs
; of the country
19
Walsh, Hist,of Dublin, append, ix. p. Ixiv. Dublin, 1818
J9
D Alton, Hist, of Droghcda, vol. i.
pp. 42, 43.
11
De Burgh, Hibcmia Dominicana, Col.
9- Agripp. p. 344 1762
Lanihan, p. 90.
93
See Sanctuaries of the
m No. dlxxxix. p. 748, ed.
Madonna,
sub. noi/i.
cit.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye. 309

selected burial places for themselves in this

monastery. Amongst these were O
Sullivan More,
and the two O Donohues. 195 The
abbey was
situated within the demesne of Muckross, from
whence it has taken its modern appellation.
Wadding also notices how fond people were
of being buried in this abbey out of love of our
196
Ladye.
The image of our Ladye was greatly venerated.
When the English were devastating the abbey,
and had torn down and trampled on the figure
of our Lord on the Rood, some of the friars
carried off the image of our Ladye, and placed it
at the foot of a dead tree which had lost all its
bark. Lo immediately the dead tree revived, and
!

budded forth leaves and shoots which formed such

a thick shelter that the rain never penetrated for
a year and concealed the statue. It is also related
that on one occasion a woman perjured herself
197
before it, and with signal discomfiture.

NAVAN. On the iQth of July, 1539, the image of our

Blessed Ladye, so long held in veneration here,
was torn from her altar and indignantly destroyed.
In the abbey church of Navan there was an
image of the Blessed Virgin Marye held in great
repute, to which people from all parts of Ireland,
princes and peasants, rich and poor, were in the
habit of making their pilgrimages. In the Parlia
ment of Dublin in the year 1454, it was ordered
That letters patent of the King be made, in
"

the form laid down, for taking into protection

all people, whether rebels or others, who shall

go in pilgrimage to the Convent of the Blessed

198
Virgin of Navan."
In a Parliament held at Drogheda, A.D. 1460
38 Henry the Sixth under Richard, Duke of
York, an Act was passed summoning Thomas
Bathe, Knight, "pretending to be Lord of Louth,
11)5
Four Masters, ad ann. 1340. A note says that it should be Donnell, son of
Cormac, instead of the son of Teige ; most probably a mere error of transcription.
See note, vol. iii. p. 566.
196 Ad ann.
1340, n. xxvi.
J97 vol. vii. p. 241.
\Vadding,
Iu8
Hardiman, Statute of Kilkenny, p. 51.
310 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye.

wherein he hath no title or inheritance," to appear

before the prince on the Tuesday before the next
St. Patrick s Day, under
penalty of forfeiture of
all his property, and of
being excluded from the
King s protection, to answer the charges of which
he was accused. In the preamble of this Act
it is stated that Bathe, for the purpose of obtain

ing the King s favour, suborned one of his servants

to falsely accuse Dr. John Stackbolle, doctor of
each degree, and one of the dignitaries of the
abbey of Navan, of high treason, for which he was
imprisoned in Dublin Castle, sent to England,
and was there vindicated and set free ; that Bathe
next robbed Dr. Stackbolle, and refused to make
restitution that Dr. Stackbolle
; being in despair
"

of any remedy against the extortion, violence, and

"

oppression of the said Bathe, wrote to the Pope

and obtained an order for Dr. Ouldhall, Bishop
of Meath, to threaten him with excommunication,
unless within a limited time he made reparation ;

that restitution being refused, and Bathe con

tinuing in his contumacy, the Bishop of Meath,
in accordance with the Pope s order, went in
solemn procession to the market-place of Navan
(where the old cross of Navan stood) on a market
day, and there excommunicated Thomas Bathe ;
that after this, Bathe sent some ruffians to the

abbey of Navan, who forcibly carried off Dr. Stack

bolle to Wilkinston, and there cut off his tongue
and put out Dr. Stackbolle was
his eyes; that
carried back and cast before the
to the abbey,

image of the Blessed Virgin, and her grace, "by

mediation, and miraculous power, he was restored to

his sight and speech." 109

TRIM or This was the most celebrated sanctuary of our

ATH TRUIM. Ladye in Ireland, and stood in the abbey of the
Canons Regular of St. Augustine, for whom this
house, originally founded by St. Patrick, was
rebuilt sometime in the thirteenth century by the
200
DeLacy family.
199
Hardiman, ut sup. p. 25. Cogan, Dioc. of Meath, ancient and modern,
Dublin, 1867, vol. i.
p. 225.
200
Cogan, vol. i.
p. 299.
 Old English Devotion to our Blessed Ladye, 3 1 1

There is a confirmation, dated at Avignon, the

3rd of the Ides of July, in the fifth year of his
Pontificate, by Gregory, of a grant of privileges to
201
the abbot of Trim byCelestine III. 1191 ugS.
To this sanctuary, says Cogan, pilgrimages
were made from all parts of the country; the
Irish and Anglo-Irish vied in reverencing and

enriching with their

it votive offerings.
In 1472, an Act was passed in Parliament
held at Naas, which confirmed Letters Patent
granting to this abbey two water mills, with the
entire manor of Mathreene, in the parish of Trim,
and all the timber and underwood lying thereon,
for building the said mills ; also the custom and
services of the villeins in the manor of Trim, for
the purpose of erecting and supplying a perpetual
wax light before the image of the Blessed Virgin in
the church of the said house, and for supporting
four other wax lights before the said image, on
the Mass of St. Marye ; also for confirming other
Letters Patent, granting the sum of io/. to find
a perpetual Mass in the said house, &c. 202
There were many miracles wrought here.
In 1397, Hugh MacMahon recovered his eye
sight by fasting in honour of the Holy Cross at
Raphoe, and of the Blessed Virgin Marye at Ath
Trim. 203
The image of the Blessed
1412. Virgin Marye
204
wrought many miracles.
In 1444 a great miraculous cure was wrought
by the image of the Blessed Virgin Marye at
Trim namely, it restored sight to a blind man,
;

speech to a dumb man, and the use of his feet to

a cripple, and stretched out the hand of a person
which had been fastened to his side. 205
In 1464 great miracles were wrought by the
206
image of our Blessed Ladye of Trim.

201 Man. Hibernorum et Scotonim histor, illustr. p. 354, Docum.

Theiner, Vet.

712. Ronue, 1864.

202 vol.
Cogan. i.
p. 300.
20S
Annals of the Four Masters, ad ann.
804 Ibid, ad ann.
205 Ibid, ad ann.
206
Cogan, vol. i. p. 300.
312 Old English Devotion to o^tr Blessed Ladye.

The image of our Ladye of Trim shared the

fate of our Ladye of Walsingham. In 1537, say
the Four Masters, "they (the Saxons ) afterwards
burned the images, shrines, and relics of the saints
of Ireland and England they likewise burned the ;

celebrated image of the Blessed Virgin at Trim,

which used to perform wonders and miracles, which
used to heal the blind, the deaf, and the crippled,
and persons affected with all kinds of diseases." 207
"And there was not," continues another
. . .

in Erinn a holy cross or a figure

"

chronicler,
of Marye, or an illustrious image over which
their power reached, that was not burned." 208
Ware adds that the gifts of the pilgrims were
taken away from thence. 209
George Browne, Archbishop of Dublin, and
the great promoter of the Reformation, wrote
thus from Tallagh, June 20, 1538, to Cromwell:
These shalbe to advertise you that I endevor
"

my selff, and also cause others of my clergie to

preache the Gospell of Christe, and to sett forthe
the King s causes. There goethe a comen brewte
amonges the yrish men that I entende to ploke
downe our Ladye of Tryme with other places of
pilgramages as the holy Crosse and souche like,
which in deade I never attempted, although my
conscience wolde right well serve me to appresse
210
souche ydolles."

Up to the month of October in that year,

the image of Our Ladye of Trim had not been
burnt, for Thomas Allen, writing from Dublin on
the 2oth of that month to Cromwell, says :

(Archbishop Browne, Mr. Trea

thre
"

They
surer, and the Master of the Rolls) wold not come
into the chapel where the Idoll of Trym stode,
to th extent they wold not occasion the people ;

notwithstanding my Lord Deputie veray devoutely

211
kneeling before Hir, herd thre or fower Masses."

jDejttram crtptortg ienetricat 09ater

so7 208
Ann. p. 99. 209
Vol. v. p. 1447. Book of Obits, pp. 16, 17.
210 Public Record Office.
Irish State Papers, Henry VIII. vol. vii. n. 7.
211
Ibiil. n. 50. A note in the Four Masters, ad ann. 1397, gives the date of this
letter as the loth of August. I have examined the original, and the printed catalogue
gives the correct date, October 20.
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL PLACES
MENTIONED IN BOOK THE SECOND.
Alphabetical List.
Alphabetical List. 315
316 Alphabetical List.

YARMOUTH or Great Yarmouth 256

York

WALES.
ABERGAVENNY
Cardigan
Penrice .

St. David s

SCOTLAND.
ABERDEEN
Ayr
Deskfbrd
Edinburgh
Haddington .
 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

BOOK THE FIRST.

P. 4, ref. 4, for "pp. 143 seq." read "pp. 143 et seq."

P. 6 r, line i6,for "yzt" read "zyt."

P. 62, ref. 104, for

"

amd "

read "

and."

P. 67, note 6, for

"

quam . . .
cedifaatum, et . . . dedicatum" read
"

adificatam dedicatam"

P. 69, lines, for";" read"."

P. 73. The Gabriell Bell. At Northampton the large town bell is

called "Old Gabriel" (Times, July 1 8, 1878).

implore the help," rasv/ implore her help."
" "

P. 76, line 31, for

P. 86. Relics. Relics cannot be bought or sold ; and when it is

said that Archbishop ^Egelnoth bought the arm of Augustine at St.

Pavia (see S, pp. 21, 22), it is probably to be understood as having

reference to the valuable case in which it was enshrined.
P. 91, line 29,7^ "La Puy read Le Puy." "
"

Caverthan read Caversham."

"

P. 93, line 21, for

" "

P. 113, line 4. Vous veuillies (estre presente) &c., leave out parenthesis.
P. 124, line 3, from the Boke of Curtesay," "With felowe," &c.,
"

should be "

with your felowe," &c.

P. 134. This English John Wilson, was secretary to Father
priest,
Parsons, S.J., at Rome. In 1604 he was placed at the head of a
printing establishment at St. Omer s, by the English Fathers S.J. He
brought out the English Martyrologe, which bears his initials, J. W., in
1 608. (Recherches sur les Calendriers Ecdesiastiques, Dissertation post-
hume du R. P. Victor de Buck, S.J. JBollandiste. Bruxelles, 1877, p. 24.)
P. 144, line ii, for "hyghe moost" ;r^"moost hyghe."

P. 153, line 20. A

Maria Mater pia, so given by More.
P. 156, note 21, for dignitorum" read "digitontm."
"

P. 158, line 21, 70r "beads" read "bead."

P. 1 66, line i,for "plenas"
read" plenus."

P. 174, ref. 224, for

"

Camden Holten," read "Camden Hotten."

P. 202, ref. 122, dele vol. ii.

P. 231, line 7, for tale,"
read
" "

seal."

P. 256, line T,for "

Lambeth," read "

Lambert."

P. 261, references (in margin) 183, 184 inverted. Should be thus :

"183. 3. pp. 128, 235. 184. Opus. Edit, cit,"

&c.
 Addenda et
Corrigenda.

BOOK THE SECOND.

P. 5, line 14, for from "

read from
"coming "coming Guysnes."
p -
5, ref. tt,for "p. 154
"

read "

1549."
P. 10, ref. 5 1, for
"

Test. Vestut." read "

Test. Vetust."

P. 17, ref. 79,>r "p. 2334" read "col.

2334."
P. 20, ref. 91, for read "xi." "ii."

P. 21, ref. 94, for rzrf "xi." "ii."

P. 25, line 21, rar^" foundations."

P. 26, ref. 113, add "vol. i."

P. 27, line 21, read "Henry Courtenay."

P. 42, line 15, add ref "Wilkins, .
Concilia, t. ii. p. 423."
P. 46, lines 8, 10, read "mancuses or manaisce"
P- 54, for Howe on Hoo read Howe or Hoo."
" "
"

P. 54, ref. 201, for "South Meols" read "Ancient Meols, &c.,
London, 1869."

P. 57, ref. 209. "This miracle was

represented in a mural painting,
now defaced, in Thaxted Church, Essex ; but a fragment of the inscrip
tion yet remains
"

(Neale, Views of Collegiate and Parochial Churches.

London, 1824, vol. i. sub. nom.).
P. 82. For more about Sabedin and Argon, see
Rohrbacher, Hist.
Universelle de T Eglise Catholique. Paris, 1858, t.
xix., pp. 116122.
P. 83, ref. 293, for "c. vii." read "vol. vii."

P. 91, ref. 20, for

"

1942
"

read "

1642."

P. 98, line 28, for "April 12 read "April 28."

"

P. 1 01, for MIDDLEBOROUGH read MIDDLESBOROUGH."

" "
"

P. 102, "MOLSA," add "or MEAUX."

P. 102, line 17, velorum de si
firs, i.e., cloth from Cyprus. Eleanor
Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, in her will, dated August 9, 1399,
mentions iin vcstement, le champ de bankyn blue
diapres des autres colours
OTC cerfs dor de Cipre nn
(Nichols, Royal Wills, p. 179). Also, lit de
drop d or 1

de Cipre (Ibid. p. 183). Ducange mentions, Aurifrigia of ere

Ciprensi nobilissimo.
P. 103, line 34, for "name of the hall" read "name of the well of
the hill."

P. 104, line 10, for "stopped there" read

"stepped thereinto."
P. 104, ref. 73, add
"Newcourt, Repertoriitm."
P. 107, line 5, for "Rood of the wall" read "Rood in the
wall."

P. in, line \i,for "aisle" read "south aisle.

P. in, ref. 104, add "vol. ii."

P. 112, ref. 112, 115, add "vol. ii."

P. 113, ref. 117, add "

vol. ii."

P. 115, ref. 128, for

"

v. xi." read "vol. ii."

 Addenda et Corrigenda. 319

P. 115. ref. 133, for "Ibid." read "

Blomefield."
"

read
^
"

P. 1 1 6, line z,for "

fiUgina Eecina,"

P. ii 6, ref. 135, "P.

8 53-"
P. 121, line 10, for "Portigny"
read "Pontigny."

P. 124, ref. 167, for

"

D Blossiers "

read "

D. Blossiers."

1826
"

P. 126, line 38, for

"

read "

1286."

P. i2<),for
"ROTHERAM" read "

ROTHERHAM."
P. 131, ref. 198, add "vol. i."

P. 142, line 22, for "Lassell s" read "Lassells."

P. 145, ref. 270, for "p. 294" read "p. 296."

P. 1 6 1, ref. 1 6. "Another bit of this pavement was preserved at

St.Alban s. In the list of the Relics is enumerated De loco ubi Christus :

annundatus est Virgini gloriosce (Mon. Angl. t. ii. p. 234).

P. 1 66, line 4, and wherever it occurs, /tf/- "Rev. James Lee Warner"

read "Lee-Warner."

P. 168, ref. 32, for "Frober" read "

Froben."

Pp. 170, 171. The There is nothing

bear s skin at Walsingham.

improbable in the story of the bear s skin. It only proves that Erasmus
was no archseologist. Bishop Leofric bequeathed, together with other
ornaments, to his Cathedral at Exeter ij. tseppedu and iij. berascin or
bear skins (Cod. Dipl. Aevi Sax. v. iv. p. 275, n. dccccxl.). And
Ingulph records that, A.D. 1050, Brichtmer, eleventh Abbot of Croyland,
gave twelve nrsinas pelles quarum coram diversis altaribus qu&dam usque
ad nostra tempora perdurarunt (Hist. Ingiilphi, inter rer. Angl. scriptores.

Francofurti, 1601, p. 894). Here, then, is early evidence that bear

skins were used for altar carpets, and the bear skin which Erasmus saw
at Walsingham had no doubt been used for that purpose. Moreover,
the fact of its being hung up at the wells suggests the natural con

clusion that it had been conveyed thither for the purpose of being
washed.
P. 176, ref. 64, to "Life of Henry VII." add "pp. 20, 23."

P. 177, ref. 72, for "Feller" read

"

De Feller."

P. 178, line i o,/0r "mutual great ancestor" read "common great

ancestor."

P.. 1
85, note 79. "Muff" in the same sense which it now has is

used in Thomas Skelton s translation of Don Quixote, pt. ii. ch. x. (Notes

and Queries, 5 Ser. ix. p. 396).

P. 188, line i.for out of the pe(ril, he
"

wde vol)ner eet" read "out

of the pe(ril he wold ne)ver eet."

P. 1 88, ref. 83. The history of this distemper is given in Dr. Friend s

History of Phisick, v. ii.

p. 335.
read
"
"

P. 189, line 2, for Guistiniani "Giustiniani."

P. 194, ref. no, add "p. 37."

P. 202, ref. 121, for "PP- 43$, 468" read "338, 368."
98301? .;

320 Addenda et Corrigenda.

P. 207. The wood

of the True Cross of the genus
"

Venerable fir."

Bede, speaking of the three portions at Constantinople, says that the

Relics are exposed for veneration on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday,
and Holy Saturday, when the chest, in which they are contained, is set
on a golden altar. As long as it remains open on the altar, a won
"

derful odour spreads through the whole church. For an odoriferous

liquor like oil flows from the knots of the holy wood, the least drop of
which cures every complaint with which a man may be afflicted." Cujus
ctiam si aliquis infirmus modicam partiadam contingat, omnem cegritudinem
sanat (De Locis Sanctls, Opp. v. iv. p. 440. Edit. Giles).
P. 218, line 13, for "Ypswirche" read
"

Ypswitche."
P. 219, line $T,for "DOMIVUS" read "DOMINUS."
P. 234, ref. 214, for "Histoire et Chroniqre" read "Histoire et

Chroniqve."
P. 260, line $o,for "Hebdomary" read "Hebdomadary."
P. 283, line 37. John Hobersal, Notary and Stationer, by his will
dated January 30, 1492, bequeathes "My Almighty God, soulle unto

my Creator, Savyourand Redeemer, to his most Blessed Moder Saint

Marye Virgin, Queue of Heven, Ladye of al the world, and Empresse
of Helle" (Howe. Edit. Strype, bk. iii. p. 144).
P. 308, line 20, for "did take the image" read "did take off the
image."
Waterton, E. BQT
I06h-
Pietas Mariana Britannica. .E5W3 X