PART III — RELIGIOUS WAYFARERS
[384] “Item priont les communes . . . de ordeiner et commander que null neif ou vileyn mette ses enfantz de cy en avant à Escoles pur eux avancer par clergie, et ce en maintenance et salvation de l’honour de toutz Franks du Roialme.” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 294, 15 Rich. II, 1391.
[385] Beginning at an uncertain date: before the papal schism, i.e. 1378, according to Shirley, Introduction to “Fasciculi Zizaniorum,” 1858, Rolls series; “several months before the revolt of 1381 broke out,” according to Oman, “The Great Revolt,” 1906, p. 19.
[386] Their activity as wandering preachers is well shown by “The tenor of the complaint made to the Kinge and his councell against John Fox, Maior of Northampton, and others exhibited in French by Richard Stermersworthe, a wolman,” year 1392–3. According to the deponent the Mayor who welcomes every “errant Lollard,” has caused “the whole towne in manner to become Lollardes. . . . All ribauds infected with Lollardry, that come to the said towne are all courteously received and maintayned as yf they were prophetts before all others.” The day after Christmas, the Mayor “brought with him . . . an errant Lollard to preach within All Saints Church.” He did the same later, bringing the “parson of the church of Wynkpole, an errant Lollarde, to preach.” Powell and Trevelyan, “The Peasants’ risings and the Lollards,” London, 1899, pp. 45 ff.
[387] G. M. Trevelyan, “England in the age of Wycliffe,” 1899, p. 199.
[388] Statute 5 Rich. II, 2, cap 5.
[389] He has often been considered as an adherent of Wyclif, for no reason save that both, at the same time, wanted radical reforms, not a few however of a different kind. Ball had some religious ideas peculiar to himself; thus, according to him, natural children could not go to heaven.
[390] “Chronicon Angliæ,” 1328–1388, ed. E. Maunde Thompson, 1874, Rolls Series, p. 321.
[391] Lord Berners’ “Froissart,” cap. ccclxxxi.
[392] “Chronicon Angliæ,” 1328–1388, Thompson’s edition, 1874, p. 322.
[393] “English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle of Hampole,” edited by Rev. George Perry, 1866, Early English Text Society, Preface, pp. ix, xv–xix. See before, p. [141].
[394] The Dominicans in 1221; the Franciscans in 1224. See Dr. Jessopp, “The Coming of the Friars,” London, 1888, pp. 32–34, a work in which shine the ample knowledge and wide sympathies of the late rector of East Dereham, the “Arcady for better for worse” where he spent so many years. When Taine made his last visit to England I wanted, if I may be permitted to recall a personal souvenir, to give him a lunch where each of those invited would be a representative Englishman. Robert Browning represented poetry; Augustus Jessopp, who deeply impressed the chief guest, the country clergy.
[395] “Vision,” Text C, pas. xi. l. 14.
[396] Prologue to “Canterbury Tales.”
[397] Jack Straw, according to the confession which his contemporary the monk Thomas Walsingham relates of him, would have liked to keep no other ecclesiastics on earth but the mendicant friars: “Soli mendicantes vixissent super terram qui suffecissent pro sacris celebrandis aut conferendis universæ terræ.” “Historia Anglicana,” vol. ii. p. 10, Rolls Series.
[398] “Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text C, pass. xxiii. l. 274.
“Ac it is ferre agoo · in seynt Fraunceys tyme.”
Text B, pass. xv. l. 226.
[400] “The Rule and Life of the Friars Minors,” in Dugdale’s “Monasticon Anglicanum,” London, 1817, vol. vi. p. 1504.
[401] “Liber de adventu Minorum in Angliam,” in “Monumenta Franciscana,” ed. Brewer, Rolls Series, 1858, p. 28. The author, Thomas of Eccleston, himself a Franciscan, saw the most flourishing period of the mendicant orders; his book, of extreme naïveté, abounds in visions and tales of wonders.
[402] Matthew Paris, “Historia Anglorum,” London, 1866, vol. iii. p. 145, Rolls Series.
[403] “Monumenta Franciscana,” Rolls, p. xxix.
[404] “Speculum Vitæ B. Francisi et sociorum ejus, opera fratris Guil. Spoelberch,” Antwerp, 1620, part i. cap. 4.
[405] Thirty-two years after the friars had appeared in England, they already possessed forty-nine convents (“Monumenta Franciscana,” ed. Brewer, 1858, p. 10). In Matthew Paris will be found a good description of the behaviour of the friars minor in England on their arrival, of the poor, humble, and useful life that they first led. “Historia Anglorum,” ed. Madden, 1866, vol. ii. p. 109.
[406] See “Defensionem curatorum contra eos qui privilegiatos se dicunt” (4to, undated), a speech made in 1357, by Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, in which are denounced the successive encroachments of the mendicant friars to the detriment of the secular clergy.
[407] “Monumenta Franciscana,” ut supra, pp. 514, etc. This library had been founded by the celebrated Richard Whittington, who was Mayor of London in 1397–98, 1406–07, and 1419–20.
[408] “More canum cadaveribus assistentium, ubi quisque suam particulam avide consumendam expectat.” Rolls Series, vol. i. 38; sub anno 1291–92.
[409] Wyclif’s “Select English Works,” ed. Thos. Arnold, 1869, vol. iii. pp. 348, 380.
[410] “Monumenta Franciscana,” p. 541. Hence the reproaches the satirists:
“Of these frer mynours me thenkes moch wonder,
That waxen are thus hauteyn, that som tyme weren under.”
Thomas Wright’s “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. p. 268, Rolls Series.
[411] “Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede,” ed. Skeat, 1867, Early English Text Society, pp. 7–9; written about 1394; author unknown, the same possibly who composed “The Plowman’s Tale,” e.g. in Wright’s “Political Poems,” both works strongly influenced by Langland’s “Visions.”
[412] “Liber de adventu Minorum,” in “Monumenta Franciscana,” p. 52.
[413] Grammar, logic, rhetoric—Arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy.
[414] “Select English Works,” vol. iii. p. 382. A satire of the fourteenth century states in the same way:
“Isti fratres prædicant per villas et forum
Quod si mortem gustet quis in habitu minorum
Non intrabit postea locum tormentorum,
Sed statim perducitur ad regna cœlorum.”
But if burial is requested for a pauper in one of their privileged churches, “the keeper is absent,” is the answer, and admittance is refused:
“Gardianus absens est, statim respondetur
Et sic satis breviter pauper excludetur.”
Wright’s “Political Poems,” Rolls Series, vol. i. pp. 256–57.
[415] The complaints of the University of Oxford against the friars, stating how they wrongfully attracted with fruit and drink mere children, and taught them how to beg and to ingratiate themselves with the great, were among the severest: “Nam pomis et potu, ut populus fabulatur, puerulos ad religionem attrahunt et instigant, quos professos non instruunt sicut exigit ætas illa, sed mendicationis discursibus permittunt intendere; atque tempus, quo possint addiscere, captandis favoribus amicorum, dominarum et dominorum, sinunt consumere, in offensam parentium, puerorum periculum et ordinis detrimentum.” Year 1358, “Munimenta Academica,” Rolls Series, i. p. 207.
[416] “Hic est frater, ergo mendax.” “Historia Anglicana,” 1867–69, vol. ii. p. 13, Rolls Series.
[417] Brit. Mus. MS. Roy. 10 E. IV, fol. 100, ff. See also in MS. 17 C. xv. in the British Museum a satirical picture of a “ffryer.”
[418] Wright’s “Political Poems,” vol. i. p. 263.
[419] 20 Ed. II., “Croniques de London,” ed. Aungier, Camden Society, p. 54.
[420] Proclamation of Richard II, year 1385; Rymer’s “Foedera,” ed. 1704, vol. vii. p. 458.
[421] “Rolls of Parliament,” 20 E. III, vol. ii. p. 162, A.D. 1346.
[422] Labbe, “Sacrosancta Concilia,” Florence, vol. xxvi. col. 729.
[423] “Select English Works,” vol. iii. p. 396.
[424] “The English Works of Wyclif, hitherto unprinted,” edited by F. D. Matthew, Early English Text Society, 1880, p. 13. Most of the pieces in this collection are only attributed to Wyclif, this one among them. See also Gower’s “Vox Clamantis,” Roxburghe Club, 1850, p. 228.
[425] “English Works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted,” p. 12.
[426] So also in Chaucer’s “Prologue”:
“His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes
And pynnes, for to yive faire wyfes.”
[427] Wright’s “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. pp. 264 and 268.
[428] “Select English Works,” vol. i. p. 381. See also Wright’s “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. p. 257.
[429] “Eulogium historiarum,” ed. Haydon, Rolls Series, London, 1858, vol. iii. p. 392. What the condemned friars were accused of was thus explained to them: “Similiter vos in hypocrisi, adulatione et falsa vita audivistis falsas confessiones in quibus injunxistis populo pro pœnitentia ut quærerent regem Ricardum in Wallia. Vos etiam in hypocrisi, adulatione et falsa vita collegistis magnam summam pecuniæ mendicando et misistis ad Audeonum (Owen) Glendour proditorem, ut veniat et destruat totam linguam Anglicanam,” a language which Henry prided himself in speaking and which he had used in parliament to claim the crown. “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. 422.
[430] Year 1533, Holinshed, “Chronicles,” London, 1587, vol. iii. p. 945. Friar Forest had refused the oath of supremacy.
[431] “Libellus vere aureus . . . de optimo reipublicæ statu deque noua Insula Vtopia . . . cura P. Ægidii . . . nunc primum . . . editus,” Louvain, 1516, lib. i.
[432] Hardy, “Registrum palatinum Dunelmense,” vol. iii. p. cxxxiv.
[433] “Theodori archiepiscopi Cantuariensis pœnitentiale,” in Migne’s “Patrologia,” vol. xcix. col. 938 and 940.
[434] “Halitgarii episcopi Cameracensis liber pœnitentialis,” in Migne’s “Patrologia,” vol. cv. col. 706.
[435] See Appendix XIII, p. [438].
[436] The two words were used as interchangeable. Du Cange quotes a text of 1389, reading: “Come il fust venu en la ville de Necie près Faloise un questeur ou porteur de pardons.” Sub verbo “Perdonantia.”
[437] In England as elsewhere forgers were busy. One is captured at great expense in the year 51 Ed. III: “To John Compton, one of the king’s archers of his crown. In money paid to him for the expenses of himself and other archers in his retinue, coming from Gloucester to London, to conduct and deliver up Thomas Pardoner and Reginald Clerc, forgers of the seal of the Lord the Pope . . . also for hire of horses for the same Thomas and Reginald and for divers other costs occurred in their safe conduct, £6.” Devon, “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 203.
[438] “Archæologia,” vol. xx. p. 53, John Webb’s translation. See Appendix XIV, p. [439].
[439] Prologue to the “Canterbury Tales,” and Prologue to the “Pardoner’s Tale.”
[440] “The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio” . . . done into English . . . by John Payne, London, 1886, vol. ii. p. 278, tenth Tale, sixth Day.
[441] See Appendix, XV p. [440].
[442] Same Appendix.
[443] “Excommunicatis gratiam absolutionis impendit. Vota peregrinationis ad apostolorum limina, ad Terram Sanctam, ad Sanctum Jacobum non prius remisit quam tantam pecuniam recepisset, quantam, juxta veram æstimationem, in eisdem peregrinationibus expendere debuissent, et ut cuncta concludam brevibus, nihil omnino petendum erat, quod non censuit, intercedente pecunia, concedendum.” “Historia Anglicana”; Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 452.
[444] See Appendix XV, p. [444].
[445] Lyndsay, “Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits” performed at Linlithgow, 1540; Early English Text Society, 1869; John Heywood, “The Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte,” 1533; “The foure Ps,” 1545.
[446] Payne’s “Boccaccio,” vol. ii. pp. 280, 287.
[447] “The Leofric Missal” (1050–1072), edited by F. E. Warren, 1883, Clarendon Press, pp. lxi, 3, 4.
[448] “Historia Anglorum” (Historia minor), ed. Sir F. Madden, London, 1866; vol. iii. p. 60, Rolls Series.
[449] Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 176.
[450] “Le livre des fais et bonnes mœurs du sage roy Charles,” by Christine de Pisan, chap. xxxiii. vol. i. p. 633; “Nouvelle Collection de Mémoires,” ed. Michaud and Poujoulat, Paris, 1836.
[451] “Pantagruel,” book ii. chap. xvii., “Comment Panurge gagnoit les pardons.”
[452] “Farce d’un pardonneur, d’un triacleur et d’une tavernière,” Viollet le Duc, “Ancien théâtre français,” Paris, 1854–57, vol. ii. p. 50.
[453] “The Pleasaunt Historie of Lazarillo de Tormes, . . . drawen out of Spanish by David Rouland, of Angelsey.” London, 1586, Sig. G. iii.
[454] A favourite subject among miniaturists, and to be found in several manuscripts (2 B. vii; 10 E. IV) in the British Museum. See the headpiece of the present chapter.
[455] Labbe, “Sacrosancta concilia,” Florence edition, vol. xxv. col. 1177, and vol. xxvi. col. 462. In 1419, Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, ordered public prayers, litanies, and processions, to protect the King of England and his army against the wicked operations of magicians. Wilkins, “Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ,” vol. iii. p. 392.
[456] “Si vero masculus quisquam voluerit, ut est moris, ejusdem defuncti vel defuncte nocturnis vigiliis interesse, hoc fieri permittatur, dumtamen nec monstra larvarum inducere, nec corporis vel fame sue ludibria, nec ludos alios inhonestos, presumat aliqualiter attemptare.” Toulmin Smith, “English Gilds,” p. 194.
[457] “Araneis et aliis vermibus nigris ad modum scorpionum, cum quadam herba quæ dicitur millefolium et aliis herbis et vermibus detestabilibus.” Thos. Wright, “Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, 1324,” Camden Society, 1843, p. 32.
[458] “The Canons Yeomans Tale.”
[459] The whole of book vii of his “Confessio Amantis” is devoted to the exposition of a system of the world and to the description of the inner nature of beings and substances. The “Roman de la Rose” is not less explicit on these matters (confession of Nature to Genius).
[460] “De Proprietatibus Rerum,” lib. xvi, a work of immense repute, translated into English by Trevisa in 1398, into French, Spanish, Dutch.
[461] “Les Amants magnifiques.”
[462] “Conciliorum generalium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ,” vol. iv. p. 261, “Pauli V. Pont. max. auctoritate editus,” Rome, 1623. See Appendix XV, p. [444].
[463] Winter of 1435; he was coming on a mission to James I of Scotland. “Romance of a King’s Life,” pp. 52, 97.
[464] First cousin to Edward II, executed in 1322. Froissart had no doubt as to the authenticity of his miracles. “Thomas erle of Lancastre, who was a noble and a wyse holy knyght, and hath done syth many fayre myracles in Pomfret, where he was beheeded” (vol. i. chap. vi. in Lord Berners’ translation). The body of Charles de Blois, killed at the battle of Auray in 1364, but this one an undoubtedly pious warrior, also worked miracles, and Froissart imagined that Urban V had canonized him: “His body [was] after sanctifyed by the grace of God and called Saynt Charles, and canonized by Pope Urban the V; for he dyde, and yet dothe many fayre miracles dayly.” Vol. i. cap. 226 of Lord Berners’ translation.
[465] “Non absque homicidiis aliisque lætalibus verberibus . . . et de majoribus periculis verisimiliter imminentibus multipliciter formidatur . . .” A.D. 1323, “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine, 1873, p. 324, Rolls Series.
[466] The archbishop did write to this effect to the Pope (John XXII) on February 24, 1327, asking him to make inquiry with a view to canonization. “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” p. 340.
[467] Petition to Parliament, 1 Ed. III, 1326–7. “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 7.
[468] “Memorials of London,” Riley, 1868, p. 203. The miracles worked by the same are also noted in the contemporary “Croniques de London” (Camden Society, ed. G. J. Aungier, p. 46), and by many others.
[469] J. Nichol’s “Wills of the Kings and Queens of England,” 1780, p. 54. A chapel had been built on the hill where the earl had been beheaded. The offerings brought there by the pilgrims were, in 1334, the subject of a curious debate between the prior and the convent of Pontefract on the one hand, and the Lord of Wake on the other; this lord had “taken possession of the said chapel and the offerings brought there, and had taken the keys with him.” The prior and the convent in a petition to Parliament requested to have the “administration of these offerings,” as “spiritual things within their parish and belonging to their church,” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 84.
[470] “Ne . . . pro sancto vel justo reputetur, cum in excommunicatione sit defunctus, sicut sancta tenet Ecclesia.” “Dictum de Kenilworth,” § viii., in “Select Charters,” ed. Stubbs, 1870, p. 410.
Salve Symon Montis Fortis
tocius flos militie,
Duras penas passus mortis,
protector gentis Angliæ.
“Ora pro nobis, beate Symon, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.” Hymn composed shortly after the death of Simon; Warton, “History of English Poetry,” ed. Hazlitt, 1871, vol. ii. p. 48.
[472] Rymer’s “Fœdera,” edit. 1704, vol. iv. p. 20.
[473] Ibid., vol. iii. p. 1033.
[474] See Appendix XVI, p. [445].
[475] On the advertising of certain pilgrimages by means, sometimes, of the most famous of mediæval romances, see the capital work of Joseph Bédier, “Les Légendes épiques, Recherches sur la formation des Chansons de Geste,” Paris, 1908, 4 vols. On the especial veneration of saints who had been road and bridge builders, see III, p. 72, where, speaking of the immense popularity of the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela in the eleventh century, Bédier says: “Ce fut l’époque héroïque du pèlerinage. C’est alors que la route romaine commence à se peupler d’asiles pour les voyageurs; c’est alors qu’exercent leur activité les saints que l’Eglise vénère parce qu’ils furent de bons ingénieurs, réparant les chaussées, desséchant les marécages, jetant des ponts sur les rivières et les torrents, saint Dominique de la Calzada, et ce Français, saint Aleaume de Burgos, ancien moine de la Chaise-Dieu.”
[476] “Sane nuper ad aures nostras pervenit quod ad quandam imaginem beatæ Virginis in ecclesia parochiali de Foston noviter collocatam magnus simplicium est concursus, acsi in eadem plus quam in aliis similibus imaginibus aliquid numinis appareret.” Year 1313, Wilkins’ “Concilia,” vol. ii. p. 423.
[477] See e.g. MS. 2 B. vii. in the British Museum, fol. 211, and 10 E. IV., fol. 209. The story of this miracle has been told by numberless authors in the Middle Ages; the text of one version of the tale, with references to the others, will be found in G. F. Warner, “Miracles de Nostre Dame,” Roxburghe Club, 1885, pp. xxxiv and 63.
[478] “Loci e libro veritatum, passages selected from Gascoigne’s Theological Dictionary” (1403–1458), edit. Thorold Rogers, Oxford, 1881, p. 206. This Fullar is known to have come to England, where he saw Gascoigne. Eugene IV was Pope during the second quarter of the fifteenth century.
[479] “No fewer than thirty-eight of these pilgrims’ Meccas in the County of Norfolk alone.” Sidney Heath, “Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages,” London, 1911, p. 30.
[480] To Edw. Raven, Jan. 20, 1551. “Whole Works,” Giles, 1865, p. 252.
[481] “Henry III, Edward I, Edward III, David Bruce, Q. Catherine after Flodden, Henry VII and Henry VIII visited the famous shrine.” Walcott, “English Minsters,” 1879, II, 229.
[482] The “Image of Darvell Gathern,” greatly venerated by the Welsh, was burnt with him. Ellis, “Original Letters,” 1st series, II, 82 ff.
[483] Ellis, ibid., pp. 79, 80, Sept. 1537 (?).
[484] Patent of 19 Richard II in the appendix to Mr. Karkeek’s essay, “Chaucer’s Schipman and his Barge, ‘The Maudelayne,’” Chaucer Society “Essays,” 1884.
[485] Becquet or Becchet, of Norman blood, both on his father’s side, who was from Thierceville, as on his mother’s, who was from Caen.
Desuz le frunt li bullit la cervelle.
A real Turpin, but who long survived the event, was Archbishop of Reims at the time of the Roncevaux disaster.
[487] Moved in July, 1220 to Trinity Chapel, behind the high altar.
[488] A beautifully illustrated fragment of a life of the saint, in French verse of the thirteenth century, has been published with facsimiles by Paul Meyer: “Fragments d’une vie de saint Thomas de Cantorbéry,” Paris, 1885. A remarkable thirteenth-century picture of the murder, with obvious attention to historical exactitude, is in one of the MSS. of the Yates Thompson Collection, reproduced in the Catalogue of the sale (March 23, 1920), lot xxxiv.
[489] Something yet remains of the bas relief representing his life above the portal of the southern transept of the cathedral at Bayeux.
[490] “Historical Memorials of Canterbury,” chap. iv.
Felix locus, felix ecclesia,
In qua Thomæ vivit memoria,
Felix terra quæ dedit præsulem,
Felix illa quæ fovit exulem.
[492] “La vie de Saint Thomas le Martyr, par Garnier de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, poète du XIIe siècle,” ed. C. Hippeau, Paris, 1859.
[493] Epilogue, p. 205.
[494] On which see, e.g. “The Old Road,” by H. Belloc, London, 1904; Sidney Heath, “Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages,” London, 1911, chap. viii. A characteristic decree of the Venetian Senate, showing the popularity of this pilgrimage abroad, authorizes on Aug. 3, 1402, Lorenzo Contarini, captain of the Venetian galleys setting sail for Flanders, to visit St. Thomas’s shrine, in accomplishment of a vow, to go thither and return in one day while the galleys would be at Sandwich, but not to sleep away from his vessel. “Calendar of Venetian State papers relating to English Affairs,” ed. Rawdon Brown, Rolls series, 1864, I, 42.
[495] Garnier, ibid. pp. 210 ff.
[496] The original charter of Louis VII has disappeared, but the confirmation by his son still exists. It reads: “Noverint igitur universi, presentes pariter et futuri, quod intuitu beati martiris quondam Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, ad cujus tumulum pro salute anime et sanitate corporis impetranda, pater noster in multa devotione fuerat profectus, conventui monachorum Sancte Trinitatis ibidem Deo servientium centum modios vini, ad mensuram Parisiensem, singulis annis tempore vendemiarum, in castellaria Pissiaci accipiendos, in elemosynam concessit . . . quod factum patris nostri ne aliqua possit oblivione deleri et aliqua malignantium invidia violari, manu nostre confirmationis apposita, precipimus immutabiliter custodiri.” Given at Nantes, year 1180. Text, facsimile and comment in “Archæologia Cantiana,” vol. IV, 1861, p. 127.
“Muids” (modii) were of a different sort, according to places; those “of the Paris measurement” contained 270 of our litres and were therefore quite goodly casks.
[497] Berners’ Froissart, ed. Ker, I, p. 393.
[498] On the extraordinary voyage of the “basileus and autocrator” and his stay of four years away from his besieged capital, see Schlumberger, “Un Empereur de Byzance à Paris et à Londres,” “Revue des Deux Mondes,” Dec. 15, 1915.
[499] Wilkins, “Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ,” vol. iii, 1737, p. 847. On the discovery in 1888 of bones supposed to be those of the archbishop, see Canon A. J. Mason’s “What became of the Bones of St. Thomas? A contribution to his fifteenth Jubilee,” London, 1920.
[500] 2 Ed. VI, “Miscellaneous Writings of Thomas Cranmer,” Parker Society, Cambridge, 1846, p. 147.
[501] “Piers Plowman,” ed. Skeat, Text C, pass. 1, l. 51.
[502] Printed in “The Academy,” Nov. 17, 1883, p. 331.
[503] “The Examination of Master William Thorpe,” 1407, Arber’s “Engl. Garner,” vi, 84. Cf. “Anecdotes . . . tirées . . . d’Etienne de Bourbon, XIIIe siècle,” ed. Lecoy de la Marche, “Sextus titulus, De Peregrinatione.”
[504] See Appendix XVII, p. [446]. On Reynard, the date, composition and sources of this work, see Léon Foulet, “Le Roman de Renard,” Paris, 1914.
[505] “A Dialoge or communication of two persons, deuysyd and set forthe in the laten tonge, by the noble and famose clarke, Desiderius Erasmus, intituled ye pylgremage of pure deuotyon. Newly translatyd into Englishe.” London (1540?), 16º.
[506] “A Dyaloge of syr Thomas More knyghte . . . wherin be treatyd dyuers maters, as of the veneration and worshyp of ymagys and relyques, praying to sayntys, and goyng on pylgrymage, wyth many othere thyngys touchyng the pestylent sect of Luther and Tyndale.” London, 1529, 4º.
[507] “The sermon . . . made . . . to the conuocation of the clergy” (28 Henry VIII), in “Frutefvll sermons preached by the right reverend father and constant martyr of Jesus Christ, M. Hugh Latymer.” London, 1571, p. 10.
[508] Ordinance for the state of the wardrobe and the account of the household, June, 1323. “King Edward II’s Household and Wardrobe Ordinances,” ed. Furnivall, Chaucer Society, 1876, p. 62.
[509] In the continuation of Chaucer’s tales, the Knight is represented interpreting to his son the strong and weak points in the continuous wall at Canterbury, and discussing whether it was proof against gunshot:
“And a-poyntid to his sone the perell and the dout,
Ffor shot of arbalast and of bowe, and eke for shot of gonne.”
“The Tale of Beryn,” ed. Furnivall and Stone, E.E.T.S., 1909, p. 9.
[510] C. Roach Smith has described a number of them in his “Collectanea Antiqua,” London, 1848, vol. i. p. 81, and vol. ii. p. 43. He has given drawings of many which had been “discovered chiefly in the bed of the Thames, and in making the approaches to new London Bridge.” See also “Guide to mediæval room, British Museum,” 1907, p. 69; Heath, “Pilgrim Life,” 1911, ch. VI. A specimen is given below, p. [418].
[511] “Tale of Beryn,” ibid. p. 7.
[512] Among the ornaments worn by Chaucer’s pardoner was a “vernicle” on his cap, as may be seen above in the plate, p. [336]. Sir Thomas More, in his “Dialogue,” describes as follows the vernicle represented on pilgrims’ medals: How, says he, can it be maintained that Christ blames images, “where he lykyd to leve the holy vernacle, thexpresse ymage also of hys blessid vysage, as a token to remain in honour among such as lovyd hym from ye tyme of hys bytter passyon hytherto, whych as it was by the myracle of hys blessid holy hand expressed and lefte in ye sudari: so hath yt bene by lyke myracle in that thyn corruptyble cloth kepte and preservyd uncorrupted thys xv. C. yere freshe and well perceyved, to ye inwarde cumforte, spyrytuall reioysyng and grete encreace of fervoure and devocyon in the harts of good crysten people” (Sig. B. iii.).
[513] Most of them mentioned by Garnier in his “Vie de Saint Thomas,” where, after stating that men of all sorts flocked to Canterbury, he adds (ed. Hippeau, p. 205):
“Et anpules raportent en signe del veiage,
Mès de Jerusalem en est la croix portée,
Et de Rochemadur Marie en plum getée,
De Saint Jame la scale, qui en plun est muée;
Or à Deus saint Thomas cele ampule donée,
Qui est par tut le mund chérie et honorée.”
[514] “Guide du pélerin à Rocamadour,” by M. le Chanoine Laporte, Rocamadour, 1862, chap. viii.
[515] “Les louenges du roy Louys xije. de ce nom, nouvellement composées par maistre Claude de Seyssel, docteur en tous droits.” Paris, 1508, sign. f. iii.
[516] Skeat’s edition, Text C, pass. i. l. 47.
[517] See the drawing of this ring in vol. viii. of the “Archæological Journal,” p. 360. The long stick, or pilgrim’s staff, and the bag or “scrip” were the characteristic signs of pilgrims. In the romance of King Horn, the hero meets on his road a palmer, and to disguise himself changes clothes with him; in this transformation the author only points out the chief particulars, that is to say, the staff and the bag. “Horn took burdon and scrippe.” (“King Horn, with fragments of Floris and Blauncheflur,” ed. by J. H. Lumby, Early English Text Society, 1866.) We have seen above, p. [362], that Reynard on his way to Rome took just the same implements.
[518] Statute 12 Rich. II, cap 7.
[519] Statute 5 Rich. II, st. 1, c. 2. Restrictions on pilgrimage-making existed also in France. See an ordinance of Charles VI, February 27, 1399, prohibiting pilgrimages to Rome. “Recueil d’Isambert,” vol. vi. p. 843.
[520] “Rolls of Parliament,” 13 Rich. II, vol. iii. p. 275, and statute 1, cap. 20 of 13 Rich. II.
[521] As to the number of pilgrimages, their origin, and history, see the “Dictionnaire géographique, historique, descriptif, archéologique des pélerinages anciens et modernes,” by L. de Sivry and M. de Champagnac, Paris, 1850, 2 vols. 8vo, forming vols. xliii. and xliv. of Migne’s “Encyclopédie théologique.”
[522] Ripert-Monclar, “Bullaire du Pont d’Avignon,” 1912.
[523] Statute 4 Ed. III, c. 8.
[524] Petition of the Calais burgesses, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 500, 4 Henry IV, A.D. 1402. In Dover too, on the opposite shore, there was such a house, the inventory of which has been printed: Walcott, “Inventories of St. Mary’s Hospital or Maison-Dieu, Dover,” London, 1869. In the diary of his travels, during the sixteenth century, the Greek Nicander Nucius observes that the town of Dover seemed to be made almost entirely of inns and hotels. “The Travels of Nicander Nucius of Corcyra,” Camden Society, 1841.
[525] See Prof. J. W. Hales’ letter to The Academy of April 22, 1882, p. 287. A view of the old church, of which very little now remains, could be seen, Mr. Enlart writes me, in a picture by Van der Meulen, but it was destroyed by the Germans in one of their air raids during the late Great War, when they shelled the Museum.
[526] This relic so greatly attracted the English that they had founded in the cathedral a chapel of “Notre Dame Englesque” (Sancta Maria Anglica), and the leopards of England, writes Prof. Enlart, are still to be seen in the stained glass.
[527] Halliwell’s edition, 1866, p. 108.
[528] See the remarkable articles by Emile Male, on “L’Art du Moyen Age et les Pélerinages,” in the “Revue de Paris,” 1920; in the number of Feb. 15, an article on “Les Routes de France et d’Espagne.”
[529] Text B, p. xii. l. 37.
[530] A. B. Caillau, “Histoire critique et religieuse de Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour,” Paris, 1834, pp. 73 ff.
[531] Berners’ Froissart, vol. i. ch. cclviii.
[532] William Wey, in the fifteenth century, notices the large number of English ships at “Grwne” (Coruña), the usual port of landing for Compostela: “In porto Grwne erant de Anglicis, Wallicis, Hibernicis, Normannis, Francis, Britonnibus et aliis LXXXta naves cum topcastellis et quatuor sine topcastellis; numerus navium Anglicarum erat XXXij.” He notes the words and music of a song sung by little Spanish boys, dancing before pilgrims and offering good wishes, in exchange for which they hoped to get some small coin. “Itineraries,” Roxburghe Club, 1857, pp. 154, 156.
[533] “Fœdera,” ed. 1704, vol. vii. p. 468, 17 Rich. II.
[534] “Fœdera,” 12 Hen. VI, 1434, vol. x. pp. 567–569.
[535] “The Stacions of Rome and the Pilgrim’s Sea Voyage,” ed. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867, p. 47. This complaint on the Compostela pilgrimage is of the fifteenth century. On the Compostela sanctuary and on the propagation of certain artistic notions through the influx of pilgrims, see the before quoted article by E. Male, “Revue de Paris,” Feb. 1920.
[536] “The Paston Letters,” ed. Jas. Gairdner, vol. i. p. 48. Letter of Margaret Paston of September 28, 1443.
[537] Especially noteworthy in this respect at the present day is the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, near Mantua (in which the famous author of the “Cortegiano,” Baldassare Castiglione, is buried), where life-size, realistic wax figures, wearing real garments or armour, form a continuous series above the arches on both sides of the nave. Each scene commemorates a miraculous intervention of the Virgin: innocents saved at the moment of their execution, the halter breaking, the axe stopped, etc. The “custode” also directs attention to a stuffed animal, dangling from the roof, and which he describes as a “crocodilo” which used to desolate the country.
[538] “The Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry,” translated from the French, ed. Thomas Wright, Early English Text Society, 1868, p. 70. The original French is of the fourteenth century.
[539] “Miracles de Nostre Dame,” collected by Jean Miélot, ed. G. F. Warner, Roxburghe Club, 1885, p. 58. This version of the tale is of the fifteenth century, but the story itself is much older.
[540] i.e. St. Catherine of Mount Sinai.
[541] William Wey, in the fifteenth century, thus mentions the catacombs: “Item ibi est una spelunca nuncupata Sancti Kalixti cimiterium, et qui eam pertransit cum devocione, illi indulgentur omnia sua peccata. Et ibi multa corpora sanctorum sunt, que nullus hominum numerare nequit nisi solus Deus,” “The Itineraries of William Wey,” Roxburghe Club, 1857, p. 146. Wey, like the author of the poem, sometimes mentions prodigious numbers of bodies of martyrs; at the church called Scala Celi, “sunt ossa sanctorum decem millia militum;” in one single part of St. Peter’s at Rome, are “Petronella et xiii millia sanctorum martyrum.”
[542] William Wey said of the church of the Holy Cross: “Item, ibi sunt duo ciphi, unus plenus sanguine Ihesu Cristi, and alter plenus lacte beate Marie Virginis,” “Itineraries,” p. 146. Those who drink at the three fountains which gushed out at the death of St. Paul are cured of all maladies; those who visit the church of St. Mary of the Annunciation will never be struck by lightning; at the church of St. Vivian there is “herba crescens quam ipsa plantavit et valet contra caducum morbum.” At the church of St. Sebastian is shown a foot-print of Jesus; and it is, in fact, still to be seen there at the present day. Ibid. pp. 143–148.
[543] In the Borghese chapel.
[544] “The Stacions of Rome,” fourteenth century, ed. F. J. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867. Another version of the “Stacions,” with variants, was printed by the same in “Political, Religious, and Love Poems,” Early English Text Society, 1866, p. 113. See in this last volume notes by W. M. Rossetti on the “Stacions,” pp. xxi–xlviii, paralleling the information furnished by the English author with that given by the Italian Francino, who wrote on the same subject in 1600, and whose numbers are much less exaggerated. Mr. Rossetti states also what is still shown at Rome of the relics named in the “Stacions.”
The Saint Luke legend appears in a somewhat different form in William Wey, according to whom the saint was about to paint when he fell asleep, and the angels made the picture for him, “Itineraries,” p. 143. A similar legend is attached to the great wooden crucifix of Byzantine workmanship, called in the middle ages the “Saint Vou” (the Holy Face, vultus), at Lucca, begun by Nicodemus after the Ascension, and miraculously finished during his sleep. Bédier, “Légendes épiques,” 1908, II. 210.
[545] “Ye Solace of Pilgrimes, a description of Rome circa A.D. 1450, by John Capgrave,” ed. Mills and Bannister, Oxford, 1911, 4º.
[546] As well as that of the author of the poem. This immensely popular work of unknown date was in existence anyhow in the XIIth century. See “Mirabilia Urbis Romæ, the Marvels of Rome,” with notes by F. M. Nichols, London, 1889.
[547] “Le Saint Voyage de Jhérusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed. Bonnardot and Longnon, “Société des Anciens Textes Français,” 1878, pp. 3, 4.
[548] On the normal cost of such journeys (from Rouen to St. James of Compostela, in 1377, 343 fr. of our present money), see d’Avenel, “Histoire économique,” vi. 621.
[549] Toulmin Smith, “English Gilds,” pp. 157, 177, 180, 182, 231.
[550] Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 159.
[551] Mandate from the Archbishop of York, Feb. 1, 1351–2, in Raine, “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” p. 402.
[552] “Chronica monasterii de Melsa,” ed. E. A. Bond, 1868, vol. iii. p. 88, Rolls Series. The Abbot declares that Clement VI replied to the reproaches of his confessor as to his bad life: “Quod facimus modo facimus consilio medicorum.” About his theory of the “treasury,” see supra, p. [314]. The Pontiff, Pierre Rogier, a Frenchman, of great learning and extraordinary memory, of knightly manners, fond of festivities and amusements, had been an opponent of Edward III in the matter of benefices, which may have still increased the Abbot’s animosity. His decision as to the angels was inserted in his bull on jubilees, which were to recur every fifty years instead of every century; it concerns pilgrims coming to the jubilee.
[553] “In which year (1350) there came into England certain penitents, noblemen and foreigners, who beat their bare bodies very sharply, to the effusion of blood, now weeping, now singing; yet, as was said, they did this too unadvisedly, being without licence from the apostolic see.” Walsingham, “Historia Anglicana,” Rolls Series, vol. 1. p. 275. See also Robert de Avesbury, “Hist. Edwardi Tertii,” ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1720, p. 179. The flagellants whipped themselves with knotted cords furnished with nails, they prostrated themselves to the ground singing, with their arms extended cross-wise.
[554] The flagellants were condemned by Clement VI in 1349; he ordered the archbishops, bishops, &c., to have them imprisoned. Labbe, “Sacrosancta Concilia,” Florence ed., vol. xxv. col. 1153.
[555] Letter of the Archbishop of York to his official, “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine, pp. 397–399. The guilty were not worthless vagabonds; one has the title of magister, another is professor of civil law.
[556] “Nam quidam illorum credebant, ut asseritur, nullum Deum esse, nihil esse sacramentum altaris, nullam post mortem resurrectionem, sed ut jumentum moritur, ita et hominem finire.” “Historia Anglicana,” vol. ii. p. 12. Langland also complains of the scepticism of the nobles, who question the mysteries, and make these grave matters the subject of light conversation after meals. “Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. xii. l. 35.
[557] “Les louenges du roy Louys xij.,” by Claude de Seyssel, Paris, 1508.
[558] “A Collection of the Wills of the Kings and Queens of England,” &c., printed by J. Nichols, London, 1780. Will of Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, who died 1361, p. 54.
[559] She died November 4, 1360. Nichols, ibid. p. 29.
[560] From Bethleem, last quarter of the fourth century. Migne, “Patrologiæ Latinæ tomus XXII,” col. 582.
[561] “Epistola XLVI Paulæ et Eustochii (one of her daughters) ad Marcellam, De Sanctis Locis.” Migne, ibid., col. 483 ff. From Bethleem, same period.
[562] From Bethleem, same period. Migne, ibid. To Paulinus col. 580 ff.; to Desiderius, col. 493 ff.
[563] He and numerous companions had received the Cross at the hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1316, and the plan seemed for a time so near realization that nobles and villeins sold their lands and houses, to take part in the crusade. A plan thereof and a draft of the contract with the Marseilles shipowners has been published with excellent notes, by A. de Boislisle, “Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de France,” 1872, pp. 230 and 246. The latest date suitable for the start is stated to be the middle of April. Full details are given as to the supplies of every sort, to be provided for the galleys, food and the rest: “panis biscoctus,” i.e. biscuit.
[564] Robert of Avesbury, “Historia Edwardi Tertii,” ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1720, pp. 63, 115.
[565] The single and last attempt on a grand scale was the ill-starred campaign against Sultan Bajazet which ended in the disaster and massacre of Nicopolis, September, 1396; on which and on all those latter-day attempts, see Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient au XIVe Siècle,” Paris, 1886, 2 vols.
[566] Built on Cape Africa, hence her name in the chronicles of the time.
[567] Berners’ Froissart (Ker, v. 361), where, however, the following passage does not appear: “Et autres ménestrels faire leur mestier de pipes et de chalemelles et de naquaires, tant que du son et de la voix qui en yssoient la mer en retentissoit toute.”
[568] Berners’ Froissart, ed. Ker, 1902, vol. v, chap. 165, 167, 170. Cf. Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient au XIVe Siècle,” Paris, 1886, chap. iv. At p. 14, vol. ii, a list of all the chief participants in this crusade.
[569] Langland speaks of the Saracens without cursing them; they might be saved, but for Mahomet who deceived them in anger at not being made pope; Christians ought to convert them; the pope makes indeed bishops of Nazareth, Nineveh, etc., but they take care never to visit their indocile flocks; let us not forget that “Jews, Gentiles and Saracens” are sincere in their beliefs. “Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. xviii. ll. 123 ff.
[570] In his book is written (in French): “And know you that I would have put this little book into Latin for brevity, but because many understand Romance better than Latin, I have put it into Romance, that it be understood, and that the lords and knights and other noblemen who do not know Latin, or but little, and who have been beyond seas, may know and understand whether I speak truth or not.” Sloane MS. 1464, fol. 3, at the British Museum, a French MS. of the beginning of the fifteenth century.
[571] In his translation of Ralph Higden’s “Polychronicon,” ed. C. Babington, vol. ii. p. 161, Rolls Series.
[572] “La Manière de Langage,” ed. Paul Meyer, “Revue Critique,” vol. x., 1870, pp. 373, 382; dedication dated May 29, 1396.
[573] “Confessio Amantis,” “Complete Works,” ed. G. C. Macaulay, Oxford, 1899, ff. four vols., vol. iii. p. 253.
[574] According to him, the English, who, as history shows, have certainly improved, are wanting in perseverance, “Et hinc secundum astronomos lunam habent planetam propriam, quæ in motu et lumine est magis instabilis.” “Fasciculi Zizaniorum,” ed. Shirley, p. 270, Rolls Series. Caxton later also considers the moon as par excellence the planet of the English: “For we englysshe men ben born under the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is never stedfaste but ever waverynge.” Prologue to his “Boke of Eneydos compyled by Vyrgyle,” 1490.
[575] “Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden,” edited by C. Babington, 1869, vol. ii. pp. 166, 168, Rolls Series.
[576] He appears in John of Gaunt’s accounts: “Item à Esmon de Wyght esquier à monsire Johan de Haukewode, de nostre doun, lxvj s. viij.” “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. Armitage Smith, 1911, vol. ii. p. 299; no date, but of 1372, or shortly after.
[577] Rawdon Brown, “Calendar of State Papers relating to English Affairs . . . at Venice,” London, 1864, vol. i. pp. 24, 29; original in Latin.
[578] Rymer’s “Fœdera,” vol. v. p. 777; in Latin. As to Boucicaut and his more famous son, both marshals of France, see Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient, au XIVe Siècle,” Paris, 1886, vol. i. pp. 160 ff. Such letters being delivered pretty frequently, were drawn up after a common form like our passports. See the one given by Rymer in vol. vii. p. 337, A.D. 1381. In November, 1392, the Earl of Derby, future Henry IV, was at Venice, and set out thence to go to the Holy Land. He had letters for the Republic from Albert IV, Duke of Austria, and the Great Council lent him a galley for his voyage. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, also set out from Venice for Palestine, in February, 1398–9. He was the bearer of a letter from Richard II to the Venetian Senate. “Calendar of State Papers . . . at Venice,” ed. Rawdon Brown, p. lxxxi.
[579] “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine, Rolls Series, p. 425.
[580] “En celle malle fortune perdy nostre nafve l’un de ses tymons dont elle estoit gouvernée en partie, et fut renversée nostre voille par plusieurs fois en la marine, malgré tous les mariniers.” The darkness was complete, and they thought their end had come; but they were saved, reaching Cyprus where they had not intended to go. “Le Saint Voyage de Jérusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed. Bonnardot and Longnon, “Société des Anciens Textes Français,” Paris, 1878.
[581] “Chronique de Monstrelet,” bk. i. chap. viii.
[582] The voyages called “Mandeville’s Voiage and Travaile” were assuredly written in the fourteenth century in French, then were translated e.g. into Latin and English. Only the portion relating to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, may have been founded on a real journey. The article “Mandeville,” by Mr. E. B. Nicholson and Colonel Yule in “The Encyclopædia Britannica”; a paper, “Untersuchungen über Johann von Mandeville und die Quelle seiner Reiseschreibung,” Berlin, 1888 (printed in “Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde,” bd. xxiii. p. 177), and Mr. G. F. Warner’s “The Buke of John Maundevil,” being the travels of Sir John Mandeville, Kt. 1322–56, Roxb. Club, 1889, fol., with the French and English texts; the notice by the same on Mandeville in the “Dictionary of National Biography,” notices by H. Cordier in his “Bibliotheca Sinica” and in “Revue Critique,” Oct. 26, 1891, represent the actual state of the question. English text in modern spelling, ed. Pollard, London, 1900. Earliest dated MS., a French one in the National Library, Paris, A.D. 1371; the identification of Mandeville with Jean de Bourgogne, alias “à la Barbe,” or “ad Barbam,” a physician of Liège, who died there in 1372, seems certain.
[583] “A Survey of Egypt and Syria undertaken in the year 1422, by Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, Kt., translated from a MS. in the Bodleian Library,” “Archæologia,” vol. xxi. pp. 281, 319, giving also the French original. Born in 1386, employed by the Duke of Burgundy, then by the King of England, Lannoy died in 1462.
[584] Sloane MS. 1464, fo. 3, British Museum.
[585] And a very large quantity, beginning as early as the fourth century (to which century belongs the “Itinerarium Burdigala Hierosolymam”), had preceded those. See, among others, “Itinera Hierosolymitana et Descriptiones Terræ Sancta,” ed. Tobler and Molinier, 1879, ff.; “Itinéraires à Jérusalem, rédigés en français aux XIe, XIIe et XIIIe Siècles,” ed. Michelant and Raynaud, 1882, both works forming part of the publications of the “Société de l’Orient Latin.” One of the best among the older guide-books was due to the French monk Bernard in the year 870. The monk, who went by way of Egypt, is brief, accurate, matter of fact, as little emotional as possible, discards all wonders, and is often careful to add: “asseritur,” “dicitur.”
[586] “Le Saint Voyage de Jérusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed. Bonnardot and Longnon, 1878, p. 99.
[587] “The Itineraries of William Wey, Fellow of Eton College, to Jerusalem, A.D. 1458 and A.D. 1462, and to Saint James of Compostela, A.D. 1456.” London, 1857, Roxburghe Club, pp. 5, 6. In his first journey to Palestine, duly “consecratus ad modum peregrinorum,” Wey started from Venice with a band of 197 pilgrims embarked on two galleys. Born about 1407, a graduate of Oxford, Wey became after the last of his journeys an Augustinian monk at Edington, Wiltshire, and died there in 1476. He wrote his Itineraries “rogatus a devotis viris” (p. 56); the text in Latin, the “prevysyoun” for travellers in English.
[588] Pages 102–116. Such a map is exhibited in one of the glass cases of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is probable, but not quite sure, that this is really the map of William Wey, the one he calls “mappa mea” in his book. It has been reproduced in fac-simile: “Map of the Holy Land, illustrating the Itineraries of W. Wey, Roxburghe Club, 1867.” It is seven feet in length and sixteen and a half inches in breadth. See also: “De passagiis in Terram Sanctam,” edit. G. M. Thomas, Venice, 1879, folio, “Société de l’Orient Latin.” This work contains extracts from a “Chronologia magna,” compiled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with maps and plans, one especially of Jerusalem and adjoining places.
[589] P. 95.
[590] “A good preuysyoun,” “Itineraries,” p. 4.
[591] “A good preuysyoun,” “Itineraries,” pp. 5, 6.
[592] Ibid. The same scramble for asses is going on even now in Palestine and Egypt, and modern “Saracens” are careful to ingratiate themselves with the traveller by addressing to him a few words in the language of his supposed nationality; one such at the foot of the Pyramids some years ago, would keep repeating to us, as a sesame for our purses, these three magic words: “Bonaparte, quarante siècles.” We had not, however, to deplore the disappearance of any “knyves and other smal thynges.”
[593] William Wey and his companions pay to the “Saracen lords” fifteen ducats: “Et sic in Terra Sancta fuimus xiij diebus, pro quibus solvimus pro conductu nostro dominis Saracenis xv ducatus.” But there were two rival sultans at war with each other, each claiming the Holy Land; and just as the pilgrims were about to leave, the one of those potentates whom they had not paid got the upper hand, and they had to give fifty ducats to his new governor of Jerusalem. “Itineraries,” p. 99. The second Boucicaut going around the holy places for the second time within a few months in 1389, is made by the Saracens to pay again. Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient,” i. 165.
[594] Ogier VIII, lord of Anglure, part of whose castle on the Aube river still remains, died about 1402. One of his companions held the pen for the troop during the journey and wrote the account of it entitled, in the MS. at the National Library, Paris: “Cy après s’ensuit le contenu du saint voyage de Jherusalem et le chemin pour aller à Saincte Catherine du Mont Synay et ainsi à Saint Anthoine et Saint Pol ès loingtains desers de Egipte,” 1395; best ed. the above quoted one by Bonnardot and Longnon.
[595] “Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville,” ed. Halliwell, 1866, p. 52.