THE BLESSING OF CRAMP-RINGS
A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY
by Raymond Crawfurd
The origin of this ceremony of blessing rings, by the kings and queens of England, for the cure of epilepsy and other spasmodic disorders, appears to be well attested by the evidence of many contemporary records. All alike refer it back to Edward the Confessor, or, to be more exact, to the ring which was one of the sacred relics in the shrine of the Confessor in his abbey of Westminster. Caxton, in the Golden Legend,[220] tells the tale of this wonderful ring, as follows:
‘When the blessed King Edward had lived many years, and was fallen into great age, it happened he came riding by a church in Essex called Havering, which was at that time in hallowing, and should be dedicated in the honour of our Lord and S. John the Evangelist; wherefore the king for great devotion lighted down and tarried, while the church was in hallowing. And in the time of procession, a fair old man came to the king and demanded of him alms in the worship of God and S. John the Evangelist. Then the king found nothing ready to give, ne his almoner was not present, but he took off the ring from his finger and gave it to the poor man, whom the poor man thanked and departed. And within certain years after, two pilgrims of England went into the holy land to visit holy places there, and as they had lost their way and were gone from their fellowship, and the night approached, and they sorrowed greatly as they that wist not whither to go, and dreaded sore to be perished among wild beasts; at the last they saw a fair company of men arrayed in white clothing, with two lights borne afore them, and behind them there came a fair ancient man with white hair for age. Then these pilgrims thought to follow the light and drew nigh. Then the old man asked them what they were, and of what region, and they answered that they were pilgrims of England, and had lost their fellowship and way also. Then this old man comforted them goodly, and brought them into a fair city where was a fair cenacle honestly arrayed with all manner of dainties, and when they had well refreshed them and rested there all night, on the morn this fair old man went with them, and brought them in the right way again. And he was glad to hear them talk of the welfare and holiness of their king S. Edward. And when he should depart from them, then he told them what he was and said: I am John the Evangelist, and say ye unto Edward your king that I greet him right well, by the token that he gave to me this ring with his own hands at the hallowing of my church, which ring ye shall deliver to him again. And say ye to him that he dispose his goods, for within six months he shall be in the joy of heaven with me, where he shall have his reward for his chastity and for his good living.... And when he had delivered to them the ring he departed from them suddenly. And soon after they came home and did their message to the king, and delivered to him the ring, and said that S. John the Evangelist sent it to him.’
Shortly after this Edward departed this life, and was laid in his abbey of Westminster, where the usual abundant harvest of miraculous cures was enacted at his shrine. In the above story we have also the explanation of one synonym of epilepsy, the ‘morbus sancti Iohannis’.
The further history of the ring may be gleaned from several sources, but notably from a MS. by one Richard Sporley, a monk of the abbey, entitled, ‘De fundacione ecclesie Westm’, dated A.D. 1450, and now in the British Museum.[221]
St. Edward’s ring was deposited with his corpse in the tomb in A.D. 1066. He was translated at midnight of October 13, 1163, when his body was found to be incorrupt. Abbot Lawrence took the robes from the body and made them into three copes, and gave the ring as a sacred relic to the Abbey:
‘Dompnus Laurentius quondam abbas huius loci ... sed et annulo eiusdem (Sancti Edwardi) quem Sancto Iohanni quondam tradidit, quem et ipse de paradiso remisit, elapsis annis duobus et dimidio, postea in nocte translationis de digito regis tulit, et pro miraculo in loco isto custodiri iussit.’
From CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY MS. Ec. iii. 59
Plate XXXIX. MIRACLES AT THE TOMB OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR
XIIIth Century
The story of the ring is also depicted in the miniatures of a beautiful illuminated Norman-French MS. Life of St. Edward the King, dating from the thirteenth century, and now in the University Library at Cambridge.[222] The single miniature reproduced here (Plate XXXIX) shows seven blind men, restored to sight, kneeling at the shrine, while a priest reads the Te Deum. At the sides of the shrine are figures on pillars of St. John as the palmer (left), and St. Edward with his ring (right). No cure of epilepsy, so-called cramp, is depicted among the many miraculous cures recorded in the MS. The earliest extant records of the use of the ring for this purpose date from the reign of Edward II.
Anstis[223] cites the following entry from the last chapter of the Constitutions of the Household of Edward II: ‘Item le Roi doit offrer de certein le jour de grant vendredi a crouce. v s. queux il est acustumez receivre devers lui a la mene le chapelein afair ent anulx a donner pur medicine az divers gentz’: the language, however, of the entry leaves little room to doubt that the custom was already an established one. At his coronation, too, Edward II offered a pound of gold wrought into a figure representing St. Edward holding a ring, and a mark of gold, or eight ounces, worked into the figure of a pilgrim putting forth his hand to receive the ring: and the presumption is that this gold was to be converted into cramp-rings.
We have detailed accounts of the manner of this ceremony of hallowing cramp-rings dating from early Tudor times, and there is sufficient evidence in the brief notices of earlier date to show that the ceremonial observed by the Plantagenet kings was essentially similar. On Good Friday, when the king went to adore the cross, he used to make an offering of money, which was redeemed by a sum of equivalent value: the money so received was converted into rings, which were subsequently hallowed by the king. In Tudor times the hallowing of the rings took place on Good Friday, so that the offering of the money must have been made at some previous time, or this part of the ritual may have actually become obsolete. The change of custom was effected some time between 9 Edward IV (1470–1) and 13 Henry VIII (1521–2), and was probably therefore the work of Henry VII, who, as we know, materially altered the kindred ceremonial of Touching for the Evil.
A MS. copy of the Orders of the King of England’s Household, 13 Henry VIII, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris,[224] contains, ‘The Order of the Kynge, on Good Friday, touching the cominge to Service, Hallowinge of the Crampe Rings, and Offeringe and Creepinge to the Crosse’. It is quoted in extenso in the Northumberland Household Book,[225] and also by Mansell in his Monumenta Ritualia.[226] It runs as follows:
‘First the king to come to the closett or to the chappell with the lords and noblemen wayting on him, without any sword to bee borne before him on that day, and there to tarry in his travers till the bishop and deane have brought forth the crucifix out of the vestry (the almoner reading the service of the cramp rings) layd upon a cushion before the high altar, and then the huishers shall lay a carpet before yt for ye king to creepe to the crosse upon: and yt done, there shall be a fourme set upon the carpet before the crucifix, and a cushion layd before it for the king to kneele on; and the Master of the jewell house shal be ther ready with the crampe rings in a basin or basins of silver: the king shall kneele upon the sayd cushion before the fourme, and then must the clerke of the closett bee ready with the booke conteyninge ye service of the hallowing of the said rings, and the almoner must kneel upon the right hand of the king, holding of the sayd booke, and when yt is done the king shall rise and go to the high altar, where an huisher must be ready with a cushion to lay for his grace to kneele upon, and the greatest Lord or Lords being then present shall take the basin or basins with the rings and bear them after the king, and then deliver them to the king to offer; and this done the queen shall come down out of her closett or travers into the chappell with ladies and gentlewomen wayters on her, and creepe to the crosse; and that done she shall returne againe into her closett or travers, and then the ladies shall come downe and creepe to the crosse, and when they have done, the Lords and noblemen shall in likewise.’
Creeping to the Cross seems to have been practised in noble households as well as in that of the king. The following entry is found in the Northumberland Household Book[227] (temp. Henry VIII):
‘Item my Lord useth and accustometh yerely when his Lordship is at home to cause to be delyveride for the Offerings of my Lordis Sone and Heire the Lord Percy upon the said Good Friday When he crepith the Crosse ijd. Ande for every of my Yonge Maisters my Lords Yonger Sonnes after jd. to every of them for their Offerings when they Crepe the Cross the said Good Friday iiijd.’
Many of the entries in the accounts of the Plantagenet kings show that the homage was paid to the Gneyth Cross. This cross was held in great veneration, and, according to tradition, was made of wood from the true Cross presented by a pilgrim to Richard Cœur de Lion: no satisfactory explanation of its name is forthcoming. It seems to have been transferred from place to place. Under Edward I we find it in the royal chapel of the Priory of Plympton: under Edward II in the royal chapel within the Tower: under Edward III in the private chapel of the royal Manor of Clipstone, and later in the same reign in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, where it was in the time of Henry VII. The purpose of the ceremony is set forth in a Proclamation of February 26, 30 Henry VIII, now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries: ‘On Good Friday it shall be declared howe creepyng of the Crosse signifyeth an humblynge of ourselfe to Christe before the Crosse, and the kyssynge of it a memorie of our redemption made upon the Crosse.’ When Convocation, in A.D. 1536, abolished some of the old ceremonies, on the ground that they were superstitious, this of Creeping to the Cross was retained as a laudable and edifying custom.
The following records, taken from the Household Books and Account Rolls of the times, serve to establish the continuity of the ceremonial subsequent to its first mention in the time of Edward II.
In the Eleemosyna Roll of 9 Edward III[228] occurs the following entry:
‘In oblacione domini Regis ad crucem de Gneythe die parasceues in capella sua, infra mannerium suum de Clipstone, in precium duorum florencium de Florencia, xiiii die Aprilis, vis. viijd., et in denariis quos posuit pro dictis florenciis reassumptis pro annulis medicinalibus inde faciendis, eodem die, vis.: summa xiis. viiid.’ [For the offering of the lord King to the Gneythe Cross on Good Friday in his chapel, in his manor of Clipstone, to the value of two florins, on the 14th day of April, vis. viiid., and for the pence bestowed in redemption of the said florins for the making of medicinal rings, on the same day, vis.: total xiis. viiid.]
Again, in the Eleemosyna Roll of the following year, 10 Edward III:[229]
‘In oblacione domini Regis ad crucem de Gneyth in die parasceues apud Eltham, xxix die Marcii, vs., et pro iisdem denariis reassumptis pro annulis inde faciendis per manus Iohannis de Crokeford eodem die, xs.’
In this entry the name of the almoner is introduced, and the form of the account is abbreviated by omitting repetition of the substituted vs.
And in 11 Edward III:[230]
‘In oblacione domini regis ad crucem de Gneyth in capella sua in pcħo de Wyndesore die parasceues, vs., et pro totidem denariis reassumptis pro annulis inde faciendis vs.’
Here the sum total is omitted: the three entries, though mutually explanatory, show how puzzling becomes a too strict economy of words.
Entries substantially the same as these may be seen in the Wardrobe Accounts of 12–14 Edward III.[231]
One more entry from the Account Books of John de Ypres, 44 Edward III, is perhaps worth quoting, as it seems to point definitely to the rings being made in this instance of both gold and silver:
‘In oblacionibus Regis factis adorando crucem in capella sua infra castrum suum de Wyndesore die parasceues in pretio trium nobilium auri et quinque solidorum sterling xxvs.—In denariis solutis pro iisdem oblacionibus reassumptis pro annulis medicinalibus inde faciendis, eodem die xxv.’
The offering of both gold and silver money would seem to bear out the suggestion as to the material of the rings, as we know that in later times both metals were used. It is, of course, arguable that the larger sum of money indicates only a greater demand for the rings.
Richard II’s Account Books[232] show that he maintained the practice of his grandfather. The following is from an account of the Controller of the Wardrobe in his reign:
‘in denar̄ solut̄ decano capelle Regis pro eisdem oblacionibus reassumpt̄ pro anulis medicinaƚ inde faciendis, xxvs.’
The substituted money seems to have been actually laid on the altar, and removed thence to be made into rings: this will explain payment being made in this case to the Dean of the Chapel Royal.
Henry IV could ill afford to dispense with any of the prerogatives of royalty, and we find him offering 25 shillings in the chapel of the palace of Eltham for the making of medicinal rings.[233]
It is no matter for surprise that no mention should be forthcoming of cramp-rings in the reign of Henry V, most of which was spent beyond the shores of England, and in the propagation rather than in the relief of disease. A passage, however, in the literary remains of Sir John Fortescue[234] taken from a tract entitled Defensio Iuris Domus Lancastriae, now to be seen in the Cotton Collection at the British Museum, and referable to the year A.D. 1462, seems to show that the practice had not been allowed to lapse during his memory, which ranged over the reigns of Henry IV, V, and VI. The translated passage runs thus:
‘Many duties likewise are incumbent on the Kings of England in virtue of the kingly office, which are inconsistent with a woman’s nature, and Kings of England are endowed with certain powers by special grace from heaven, wherewith Queens in the same country are not endowed. The Kings of England at their very anointing receive such an infusion of grace from heaven, that by touch of their anointed hands they cleanse and cure those infected with a certain disease, that is commonly called the King’s Evil, though they be pronounced otherwise incurable. Epileptics too, and persons subject to the falling sickness, are cured by means of gold and silver devoutly touched and offered by the sacred anointed hands of the kings of England upon Good Friday, during divine service (according to the ancient custom of the Kings of England); as has been proved by frequent trial of rings, made of the said gold and silver and placed on the fingers of sick persons in many parts of the world. The gift is not bestowed on Queens, as they are not anointed on the hands.’
The passage also brings out the fact that the use of both gold and silver rings had long been customary.
We have abundant evidence of the maintenance of the ceremony under Edward IV in a number of separate entries. Thus in an Eleemosyna Roll of 8 Edward IV is the following: ‘Pro eleemosyna in die parasceves c. marc. et pro annulis de auro et argento pro eleemosyna Regis eodem die.’ And in a Liber Niger Domus Regis Edwardi IV: ‘Item, to the Kynge’s offerings to the crosse on Good Friday, out from the counting-house for medycinable rings of gold and silver, delyvered to the jewell house xxvs.’ And again in a Privy Seal Account of 9 Edward IV: ‘Item, paid for the King’s Good Fryday rings of gold and silver xxxiiil. vis. viiid.’ Edward IV seems to have aimed at fortifying himself upon the throne by a liberal use of the Royal Gift of Healing, and I have elsewhere expressed my belief, in the absence of any written evidence, that it was in his reign, and not in that of Henry VII, as commonly believed, that the dole of the angel to those touched by the King for the Evil was instituted. Cramp-rings are mentioned in the Comptroller’s Accounts of 20 Henry VII, but the Tudors certainly devoted their healing powers chiefly to sufferers from the Evil.
There is a passage in the Historia Anglicana of Polydore Vergil,[235] the Italian, who came to live in England in A.D. 1502, and wrote his history during the reigns of Henry VII and VIII, which shows the nature of the patients for whom these sacred rings were used.
‘Iste annulus in eodem templo (scil. Westmonasterii), multâ veneratione perdiu est servatus, quod salutaris esset membris stupentibus valeretque adversus comitialem morbum, cum tangeretur ab illis, qui eiusmodi tentarentur morbis. Hinc natum, ut reges postea Angliae consueverint in die Parasceues, multâ coeremoniâ sacrare annulos, quos qui induunt, hisce in morbis omnino nunquam sunt.’
Besides true epileptics, they were used for those who had palsied limbs: this is interesting as suggesting the inclusion of Jacksonian epilepsy, and perhaps hemiplegia, and the resulting contractures in these conditions may have contributed to the confusion with contractures from other causes, such as chronic rheumatism. We have to bridge over in some such way the gap between their conception of ‘cramp’ and ours.
In the will of John Baret of Bury St. Edmunds,[236] dated 1463, is a bequest to ‘my lady Walgrave’ of a ‘rowund ryng of the Kynges silver’; and also to ‘Thomais Brews, esquiyer, my crampe ryng with blak innamel, and a part silvir and gilt.’ And in 1535 Edmund Lee bequeaths to ‘my nece Thwartow my gold ryng wt a turkes, and a crampe ryng of gold wt all.’
There are even earlier bequests than this of healing-rings,[237] but not specifically termed cramp-rings: they are simply spoken of as ‘vertuosi’. Thus Thomas de Hoton, rector of Kyrkebymisperton, in 1351, bequeathed to his chaplain ‘j. zonam de serico, j. bonam bursam, j. firmaculum, et j. anulum vertuosum. Item, domino Thome de Bouthum j. par de bedes de corall, j. anulum vertuosum.’ Talismanic rings, inscribed with the names of the three Magi, Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, were used as preservatives from epilepsy in Plantagenet times.
The royal cramp-rings enjoyed no monopoly in the cure of epilepsy, as is shown by an extract from a medical treatise written in the fourteenth century:[238]
‘For the Crampe. Tak and ger gedine on Gude Friday, at fyfe parriche kirkes, fife of the first penyes that is offerd at the crosse, of ilk a kirk the first penye: than tak them al and ga before the crosse and say V. pater nosters in the worschip of fife wondes, and bere thaim on the V. dais, and say ilk a day als mekyl on the same wyse: and then gar mak a ryng thar of with owten alay of other metel, and writ with in Jasper, Batasar, Altrapa, and writ with outen Ih’ c. nazarenus; and sithen tak it fra the goldsmyth upon a Fridai, and say V. pater nosters als thu did before and use it alway afterward.’
The ‘fife wondes’ are, of course, the five wounds of the crucified Jesus.
A silver ring, made of five sixpences contributed by five different bachelors, conveyed by a bachelor to the hand of a smith that was also a bachelor, was another reputed remedy for epilepsy; and its virtue was enhanced, if none of the bachelors knew for what purpose or to whom it was given.[239]
In Berkshire, rings made from a piece of silver collected at the Communion found favour, and they were more efficacious if collected on Easter Sunday. Devonshire preferred a ring made of three nails or screws that had been used to fasten a coffin, and that had been dug out of a churchyard.[240]
Cramp-rings hallowed by the King of England enjoyed repute beyond the shores of England.[241] Lord Berners, the translator of Froissart, when ambassador to Charles V, writing to ‘my Lorde Cardinall’s grace from Saragoza, the xxi daie of June, 1510’, says: ‘If your grace remember me with some crampe rynges ye shall do a thynge muche looked for, and I trust to bestow thaym well, with Godd’s grace, who evermor preserve and encrease your moste reverent astate.’ Among various charms that Charles V carried about with him were ‘gold rings from England against cramp’.[242]
In A.D. 1518 we find the President of the College of Physicians lending his patronage to the royal cramp-rings. In a letter to the Parisian scholar, Guillaume Budé,[243] Thomas Linacre writes that he ‘has sent him some rings consecrated by the King as a charm against Spasms’: and on July 10, 1518, Budé replies to him from Paris that he has ‘received his letter with the rings on July 6’, and has distributed among the wives of his relatives and friends the eighteen rings of silver and one of gold he received from Linacre, telling them that they were amulets against slander and calumny.
Even the hard-headed Scot was not proof against the magnetism of the royal rings. A letter from Dr. Thomas Magnus, Warden of Sibthorpe College, Nottinghamshire, to Cardinal Wolsey,[244] written in A.D. 1526 says:
‘Pleas it your Grace to write that M. Wiat of his goodnes sent unto me for a present certaine cramp ringges, which I distributed and gave to sondery myne acquaintaunce at Edinburghe, amonges other to M. Adame Otterbourne, who, with oone of thayme, releved a mann lying in the falling sekenes, in the sight of myche people: sethenne which tyme many requestes have been made unto me for cramp ringges, at my departing there, and also sethenne my comyng from thennes. May it pleas your Grace therefore to show your gracious pleasure to the said M. Wyat, that some ringges may be kept and sent into Scottelande; whiche after my poore oppyniyoun shulde be a good dede, remembering the power and operacion of thaym is knowne and proved in Edinburgh, and that they be gretly required for the same cause both by grete personnages and other.’
When Bishop Gardiner was in Rome in A.D. 1529, Anne Boleyn wrote him the following letter:[245]
Master Stephyns,
I thank you for my letter, wherein I perceive the willing and faithful mind that you have to do me pleasure, not doubting, but as much as is possible for man’s wit to imagine, you will do. I pray God to send you well to speed in all your matters, so that you would put me to the study, how to reward your high service: I do trust in God you shall not repent it, and that the end of this journey shall be more pleasant to me than your first, for that was but a rejoicing hope, which causing the like of it, does put me to the more pain, and they that are partakers with me, as you do know: and therefore I do trust that this hard beginning shall make the better ending.
Master Stephyns, I send you here cramp-rings for you and Master Gregory, and Mr. Peter, praying you to distribute them as you think best. And have me kindly recommended to them both, as she that you may assure them, will be glad to do them any pleasure, which shall be in my power. And thus I make an end, praying God send you good health.
Written at Grenwiche, the 4th day of April,
By your assured friend,
Anne Boleyn.
[To Master Stephyns this be delivered.]
Burnet[246] refers to this letter, as follows:
‘When he [Gardiner] went to Rome, in the year 1529, Anne Boleyn writ a very kind letter to him, which I have put in the Collection (Records No. 24). By it, the reader will clearly perceive that he was then in the secret of the King’s designing to marry her as soon as the divorce was obtained. There is another particular in that letter, which corrects a conjecture which I had set down in the beginning of the former book concerning the cramp rings that were blessed by King Henry, which I thought might have been done by him after he was declared head of the Church.[247] That part was printed before I saw this letter: but this letter shows they were used to be blessed before the separation from Rome: for Anne Boleyn sent them as great presents thither. This use of them had been (it seems) discontinued in King Edward’s time: but now, under Queen Mary, it was designed to be revived, and the office for it was written out in a fair MS. yet extant, of which I have put a copy in the Collection (No. 25). But the silence in the writers of that time makes me think it was seldom if ever practised.’
Queen Mary’s Manual, of which we shall have more to say later, seems to have been the source from which Burnet transcribed the Office. In his time it was in the library of R. Smith, titular Bishop of Chalcedon.
Numerous allusions in the records of the De Lisle family bear testimony to the popularity of cramp-rings in the reign of Henry VIII.[248] Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and afterwards Duke of Somerset, writes to Lady Lisle, in 1537:
‘Hussey told me you were very desirous to have some cramp-rings against the time that you should be brought a bedd.... I send by the present messenger 18 cramp-rings, which you should have had long ago.’[249]
John Husee writes from London on April 17, 1535, to his mistress, Lady Lisle: ‘I send you by Mr. Degory Gramefilld 59 cramp rings of silver, that Christofer Morys giveth you, and one of gold’;[250] and again, on May 2, 1538: ‘Cramp-rings I can get none out of the jewel-house. Mr. Wyllms says the King had the most part of gold, but has promised me twelve silver.’[251]
In a letter of May 13, 1536, John Husee combines denunciation of Anne Boleyn with a promise of cramp-rings to Lady Lisle:
‘Madam, I think verily that if all the books and cronycles were totally revolved and to the uttermost proscuted and tried, which against wymen hath been pennyd, contryvyd, and wryten, syns Adam and Eve, these same were I think verily nothing in comparison with that which hath been done and committed by Anne the Queen.... I think not the contrary but she and all they shall suffre. John Williams hath promised me some cramp rings for your Ladyship’;[252]
and again, six days after:
‘Your ladyship shall receive of this berer 9 cramp-rings of silver. John Williams says he never had so few of gold as this year. The king had the most part himself: but next year he will make you amends.’[253]
This day, May 19, 1536, was the day of Anne Boleyn’s execution.
Margaret Mylynton, in 1516, bequeaths to ‘my dame Croche my best gown and a kercheve, and my cramp-ring’.[254] There is nothing, however, to show that it had received the royal benediction.
Andrew Boorde, in his Introduction of Knowledge, says, ‘the kynges of Englande doth halowe every yere crampe rynges, ye which rynges worne on ones fynger doth help them whych hath the crampe’; and again, in his Breviarie of Health, published in 1547, but written during the lifetime of Henry VIII: ‘The kynges majesty hath a great helpe in this matter, in hallowing crampe rynges, and so given without money or petition.’ Boorde was medical attendant to Thomas, eighth Duke of Norfolk, Lord President of the Council and uncle of Anne Boleyn, and by him was recommended to the notice of Henry VIII, who employed him much in State business, but not, so far as is known, in a medical capacity. His testimony therefore is peculiarly reliable, and shows that Henry VIII maintained the ceremony throughout his reign, as is borne out by the scattered references we have adduced from other contemporary sources.
In 1547, after the death of Henry VIII, Gardiner sent a letter to Ridley, which contains the following passage:
‘The late king used to bless cramp rings both of gold and silver, which were much esteemed everywhere, and when he was abroad they were often desired from him. The gift he hoped the young king would not neglect. He believed the invocation of the name of God might give such a virtue to holy water as well as to the water of baptism,’ and further he speaks of the rings as endued ‘by the special gift of curation ministered to the king of this realm’.[255]
That Edward VI did not relinquish the practice of blessing cramp-rings, as has been supposed, and as Burnet submits, is conclusively proved by an entry in the Household Accounts of the year 1553, before his death. Under the heading ‘Oblations’ is 25 shillings for the redemption of rings commonly called medicine rings, to be made of gold and silver.[256]
It was little likely that Mary would allow a Catholic ceremonial to lapse for want of royal patronage. In the Appendix to Illustrations of the manners and expences of antient times in England, in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, deduced from the accompts of churchwardens and other authentic documents, London, 1797, 4to, printed in the same year, is a list of the New Year’s gifts presented by Queen Mary in 1556, among which we find:
‘Item, deliuerid by the queins commandement—to the said Robert Raynes, in broken golde, to make crampe rings, etc. Item, more deliuerid the same time, to make cramp ringes, in broke plate of silu’ theise parcelles,’ &c.
Plate XL. QUEEN MARY TUDOR BLESSING CRAMP-RINGS
From QUEEN MARY’S MS. MANUAL fo. iv
Library of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at WESTMINSTER
But there is further the evidence of the actual existence of Queen Mary’s Illuminated MS. Manual, in the Library of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Westminster, giving the Office of the Blessing of Cramp-rings in Latin, with rubrics in English showing it to be the form made use of by herself. It also contains a miniature painting of Queen Mary performing the service of consecration. The whole office is transcribed below. A full description of the Manual will be found in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,[257] at a meeting of whom it was shown and described by Sir Henry Ellis. Sparrow Simpson has also described it in the Journal of the Archaeological Association, 1871. It is a ‘small quarto volume, eight and a half inches in height by six and three-eighths in width’. Cardinal Wiseman, to whom it formerly belonged, has written on the fly-leaf, ‘Queen Mary’s manual for blessing cramp-rings and touching for the Evil. Bound 1850.’ The cover is spangled with roses and fleurs-de-lis, together with the Queen’s monogram MR. ‘The volume consists of nineteen leaves of vellum, each surrounded with a rich border, and filled either with miniatures or with the two offices which it comprises. Then follow four ruled leaves and fifteen plain leaves without manuscript.... On the recto of leaf 1 the royal arms of Philip and Mary are emblazoned, surrounded by a garter and surmounted by a crown. A rich border containing the rose, the fleur-de-lis, and the pomegranate, together with a shield bearing the cross of St. George, completes the decorations of the page.’ The red and white roses represent Queen Mary’s double title to the throne of England as the heiress of the houses of Lancaster and York, the fleur-de-lis her claim to the throne of France, and the pomegranate of Granada her descent from Ferdinand and Isabella. The Cross of St. George is derived from the shield of the Order of the Garter. ‘On the verso of this leaf is an illumination (Plate [XL]) representing the interior of a chapel with an altar furnished with curtains, candlesticks, and crucifix. At a prayer-desk before the altar kneels the Queen; before her is an open book, and on either side two golden basins containing cramp-rings.’ Leaves 2 to 10 contain ‘certayn prayo’s to be vsed by the quenes heighnes in the consecration of the crampe ryngs’. A study of the rubrics, which are in English, suffices ‘to show the essentials for the consecration of the rings: the prayers, the royal touch, the holy water.... The recto of leaf 11 is filled with an illumination of the Crucifixion with St. Mary and St. John. In the border are the instruments of the Passion—the spear, the reed and sponge, the hammer and pincers, three nails, two scourges, and (a very unusual addition) a centre-bit of the same form as that now in use. On the verso of this leaf is a very interesting full-page illumination. At a prayer-desk, on which is an open book, kneels the Queen, turning to the right (the dexter side of the picture), wearing the head-dress familiar to us in all her portraits. Before her kneels a sufferer, apparently a young man, whose bare and swollen neck the Queen holds between her two hands. Behind him, holding open the collar of the patient’s coat, kneels the “clarke of the closett” in a cassock and gown, and with a tonsured head. On the left of the prayer-desk stands “the chaplen”, a bald-headed, venerable man in a long cassock, a somewhat short surplice with full sleeves, and the “stole abowte his neck” ordered in the rubric, reading the appointed office. The Queen wears a brown dress cut square at the neck, white sleeves, and a lace ruff and waist-bands. The office for the healing follows, commencing on folio 12a, and ending on folio 19a.
‘The rubrics are in red ink, bright and fresh; and each page has a rich border of scrolls, leaves, flowers, and fruit, with occasional figures of children, &c. I enumerate the most important subjects. Folio 1b, David with head of Goliath, St. George and the Dragon, and a child with a skull; folio 2b, arms of the city of London; folio 3a, VERITAS TEMPORIS FILIA (the Queen’s favourite motto), with a sword and sceptre; folios 3b and 4a, large terminal figures with grapes; folio 4a, arms of France and England quarterly; folio 4b, DN̅S MIHI ADIVTOR; folios 5a and b, portcullis and rose; folios 6a and b, PACIENTIA and PRVDĒTIA, with allegorical figures; folios 7a and b, CHARITAS and IVSTICIA; folios 8a and b, FIDES and SPES; folios 9a and b, FORTITVDO and TEMPERANCIA.’
With the death of Mary, the ceremonial seems finally to have fallen into disuse. There is, however, a passage in the Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica of Nicholas Harpsfield,[258] which was written entirely in the reign of Elizabeth, which seems to throw some doubt on the point. The words are as follows:
‘Quin et annulus ille, de quo diximus, magna in Westmonasteriensi Londini coenobio postea reverentia reservatus, adversus comitialem morbum multis profuit: indeque etiam ortum, ut ad sacram parasceuen Reges Angliae certos annulos statis quibusdam precibus et caerimoniis consecrare consueverint, adversus eundem morbum salutares. Quae consuetudo et ad nostra usque tempora perducta est, multique huiusmodi annulorum beneficium, nostra etiam aetate, senserunt.’ [And further the above-mentioned ring was reverently preserved afterwards in the monastery of Westminster in London, and relieved many of epilepsy. That too was the origin of the custom of the Kings of England on Good Friday consecrating certain rings with set prayers and ceremonies, for the cure of the same disease. Which custom has persisted even down to our own times, and many even in our own lifetimes have derived benefit from rings of this kind.]
Nicholas Harpsfield, though he did not write till the reign of Elizabeth, was born as early as A.D. 1519, so that his words are consistent with discontinuance of the ceremony after the time of Queen Mary.
It remains to consider what diseased states were embraced by the term ‘cramp’. Epilepsy, convulsions, and rheumatism certainly. All these terms have in common the idea of muscular contraction or spasm, and their relation in usage to one another may be represented graphically as under:
Confusion of these terms is far more marked in medical than in lay writers; but at the same time there is little doubt that the conservative sentiment inspired by the royal ceremonial kept the term ‘cramp’ alive in a sense that was all but obsolete in the common diction.
Chaucer applies ‘crampe’ to muscular spasm:
But wel he felte about his herte crepe ...
The crampe of death, to streyne him by the herte.[259]
Linacre, as we have seen, speaks of cramp-rings, in 1518, as a charm against spasms, while about the same year Polydore Vergil speaks of the royal cramp-rings as a cure for the morbus comitialis. Each of these two writers clearly indicates epilepsy. In 1526 Magnus speaks definitely of cramp-rings as relieving a man lying in the falling-sickness, a term habitually applied to epilepsy. Nicholas Harpsfield too, writing in the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, speaks of cramp-rings blessed by the kings as remedies for the morbus comitialis. In all probability royal cramp-rings were used for epilepsy and epilepsy only, but it is quite possible, and I am inclined to think probable, that other cramp-rings had a less exclusive use.
Bacon’s description of cramp in his Natural and Experimental History is fairly explicit and obviously does not embrace epilepsy: ‘The cramp cometh of contraction of sinews, which is manifest, in that it comes either by cold or dryness.’
Shakespeare recognizes both epilepsy and rheumatism as entities apart from cramp. Epilepsy he seems to associate more with falling than with convulsion: thus, of the fit that attacked Caesar when the crown was offered to him, he writes:
Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.
Brutus. ‘Tis very like: he hath the falling-sickness.[260]
‘Cramp’ is used by Shakespeare for muscular spasms or contractures, and he links the term on the one side to rheumatism, and on the other to convulsions, in the following passages:
For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up.[261]
Parolles says:
‘In a retreat he outruns any lackey: marry, in coming on he has the cramp.’[262]
Prospero says:
Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints
With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews
With aged cramps.[263]
and
‘Leander ... went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont, and being taken with the cramp was drowned.’[264]
Robert Bayford, in his Enchiridion Medicum published in 1655, includes both wry-neck and convulsions under the heading cramp, but he treats epilepsy separately on the ground that, as we know to be the case, it is not always associated with convulsions. He has no word ‘rheumatism’ at all.
Pepys (1664) carried about with him a hare’s foot as a charm against colic, i.e. against muscular spasm. Among Indians, Norwegians, and Central Africans, the foot of an elk was a charm against epilepsy. Pepys also recites a charm against cramp:
Cramp, be thou faintless
As our Lady was sinless
When she bare Jesus.
In this charm the word cramp seems to refer to the painful muscular spasms of labour. Pepys, as we know, suffered from colic, but not from epilepsy, so in using a hare’s foot as a charm against colic he was probably employing a charm against epilepsy. In like manner the ‘rheumatic ring’ of to-day seems to be the lineal descendant of the cramp-ring of aforetime, and the confusion of nomenclature has doubtless not affected its efficacy. Folk-medicine serves rather to confirm than to elucidate the confusion, for in Suffolk moles’ feet are carried as a charm against rheumatism, but in Sussex against cramp. In Devonshire a dried frog is worn as a cure for fits.
Boswell, in his description of Johnson at the time of their tour to the Hebrides, uses the word ‘cramp’ in its earlier significance. ‘His head,’ he says, ‘and sometimes also his body, shook with a kind of motion like the effect of a palsy: he appeared to be frequently disturbed by cramps, or convulsive contractions, of the nature of that distemper called St. Vitus’s dance.’
It may be asked how it came about that rings were used in the first instance as a remedy for epilepsy. It has occurred to me that their use may have originated in the time-honoured belief that an epileptic seizure may be aborted by ligature of a limb or part above the situation in which the warning ‘aura’ commences. Galen, Alexander of Tralles, Rhazes, and Avicenna, among the earlier writers on medicine, all recommend the measure.
THE OFFICE OF CONSECRATING THE CRAMP-RINGS
Certain prayers to be used by the queen’s highness, in the consecration of the cramp-rings.
Deus misereatur nostri et benedicat nos Deus, illuminet vultum suum super nos et misereatur nostri.
Ut cognoscamus in terra viam tuam, in omnibus gentibus salutare tuum.
Confiteantur tibi populi Deus, confiteantur tibi populi omnes.
Laetentur et exultent gentes, quoniam iudicas populos in aequitate, et gentes in terra dirigis.
Confiteantur tibi populi Deus, confiteantur tibi populi omnes, terra dedit fructum suum.
Benedicat nos Deus, Deus noster, benedicat nos Deus, et metuent eum omnes fines terrae.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum, Amen.
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui ad solatium humani generis, varia ac multiplicia miseriarum nostrarum levamenta uberrimis gratiae tuae donis ab inexhausto benignitatis tuae fonte manantibus incessanter tribuere dignatus es, et quos ad regalis sublimitatis fastigium extulisti, insignioribus gratiis ornatos, donorumque tuorum organa atque canales esse voluisti, ut sicut per te regnant aliisque praesunt, ita te authore reliquis prosint, et tua in populum beneficia conferant: preces nostras propitius respice, et quae tibi vota humillime fundimus, benignus admitte, ut quod a te maiores nostri de tua misericordia sperantes obtinuerunt, id nobis etiam pari fiducia postulantibus concedere digneris. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
The rings lying in one bason, or more, this prayer to be said over them.
Deus coelestium terrestriumque conditor creaturarum, atque humani generis benignissime reparator, dator spiritualis gratiae, omniumque benedictionum largitor, immitte Spiritum Sanctum tuum Paracletum de coelis super hos annulos arte fabrili confectos, eosque magna tua potentia ita emundare digneris, ut omni nequitia lividi venenosique serpentis procul expulsa, metallum a te bono conditore creatum, a cunctis inimici sordibus maneat immune. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Benedictio annulorum.
Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac, Deus Iacob, exaudi misericors preces nostras, parce metuentibus, propitiare supplicibus, et mittere digneris sanctum Angelum tuum de coelis qui sanctificet ✠ et benedicat ✠ annulos istos, ut sint remedium salutare omnibus nomen tuum humiliter implorantibus, ac semetipsos pro conscientia delictorum suorum accusantibus, atque ante conspectum divinae clementiae tuae facinora sua deplorantibus, et serenissimam pietatem tuam humiliter obnixeque flagitantibus; prosint denique per invocationem sancti tui nominis omnibus istos gestantibus, ad corporis et animae sanitatem. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Benedictio.
Deus qui in morbis curandis maxima semper potentiae tuae miracula declarasti, quique annulos in Iuda patriarcha fidei arrabonem, in Aarone sacerdotale ornamentum, in Dario fidelis custodiae symbolum, et in hoc regno variorum morborum remedia esse voluisti, hos annulos propitius ✠ benedicere et ✠ sanctificare digneris: ut omnes qui eos gestabunt sint immunes ab omnibus Satanae insidiis, sint armati virtute coelestis defensionis, nec eos infestet vel nervorum contractio, vel comitialis morbi pericula, sed sentiant te opitulante in omni morborum genere levamen. In nomine Patris ✠ et Filii ✠ et Spiritus Sancti ✠. Amen.
Benedic anima mea Domino: et omnia quae intra me sunt nomini sancto eius. Here follows the rest of that Psalm.
Immensam clementiam tuam misericors Deus humiliter imploramus, ut qua animi fiducia et fidei sinceritate, ac certa mentis pietate, ad haec impetranda accedimus, pari etiam devotione gratiae tuae symbola fideles prosequantur: facessat omnis superstitio, procul absit diabolicae fraudis suspicio, et in gloria tui nominis omnia cedant: ut te largitorem bonorum omnium fideles tui intelligant, atque a te uno quicquid vel animis vel corporibus vere prosit, profectum sentiant et profiteantur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
These prayers being said, the queen’s highness rubbeth the rings between her hands, saying:
Sanctifica Domine annulos istos, et rore tuae benedictionis benignus asperge, ac manuum nostrarum confricatione, quas, olei sacra infusione externa, sanctificare dignatus es pro ministerii nostri modo, consecra, ut quod natura metalli praestare non possit, gratiae tuae magnitudine efficiatur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Then must holy water be cast on the rings, saying:
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Domine Fili Dei unigenite, Dei et hominum Mediator, Iesu Christe, in cuius unius nomine salus recte quaeritur, quique in te sperantibus facilem ad Patrem accessum conciliasti, quem quicquid in nomine tuo peteretur, id omne daturum, cum certissimo veritatis oraculo ab ore tuo sancto, quum inter homines versabaris homo pronunciasti, precibus nostris aures tuae pietatis accommoda, ut ad thronum gratiae in tua fiducia accedentes, quod in nomine tuo humiliter postulavimus, id a nobis, te mediante, impetratum fuisse, collatis per te beneficiis, fideles intelligant. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo patre in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Vota nostra quaesumus Domine, Spiritus Sanctus qui a te procedit, aspirando praeveniat, et prosequatur, ut quod ad salutem fidelium confidenter petimus, gratiae tuae dono efficaciter consequamur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Maiestatem tuam clementissime Deus, Pater, Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus, suppliciter exoramus, ut quod ad nominis tui sanctificationem piis hic ceremoniis peragitur, ad corporis simul et animae tutelam valeat in terris, et ad uberiorem felicitatis fructum proficiat in coelis.
Qui vivis et regnas Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
THE CEREMONIES OF BLESSING CRAMP-RINGS, ON GOOD FRIDAY, USED BY THE CATHOLICK KINGS OF ENGLAND
The psalme ‘Deus misereatur nostri, etc.’, with the ‘Gloria Patri’.
May God take pity upon us and blesse us: may he send forth the light of his face upon us, and take pity on us.
That we may know thy ways on earth: among all nations thy salvation.
May people acknowledge thee, O God: may all people acknowledge thee.
Let nations rejoice and be glad, because thou judgest people with equity: and doest guide nations on the earth.
May people acknowledge thee, O God, may all people acknowledge thee: the earth has sent forth her fruit.
May God blesse us, that God who is ours: may that God blesse us: and may all the bounds of the earth feare him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, and now, and ever: and for ever and ever. Amen.
Then the king reades this prayer:
Almighty eternal God, who by the most copious gifts of thy grace flowing from the unexhausted fountain of thy bounty, hast been graciously pleased for the comfort of mankind, continually to grant us many and various means to relieve us in our miseries, and art willing to make those the instruments and channels of thy gifts, and to grace those persons with more excellent favours, whom thou hast raised to the royal dignity; to the end that as by thee they reign and govern others, so by thee they may prove beneficial to them, and bestow thy favours on the people: graciously heare our prayers and favourably receive those vows we powre forth with humility, that thou mayest grant to us, who beg with the same confidence, the favour which our ancestors by their hopes in thy mercy have obtained, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The rings lying in one bason, or more, this prayer is to be said over them:
O God, the maker of heavenly and earthly creatures, and the most gracious restorer of mankind, the dispenser of spiritual grace, and the origin of all blessings: send downe from heaven thy holy Spirit the Comforter upon these rings, artificially fram’d by the workman, and by thy greate power purify them so, that all the malice of the fowle and venomous serpent be driven out; and so the metal, which by thee was created, may remaine pure and free from all the dregs of the enemy, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The blessing of the rings.
O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, heare mercifully our prayers. Spare those who feare thee. Be propitious to thy suppliants, and graciously be pleased to send downe from heaven thy holy angel: that he may sanctify ✠ and blesse ✠ these rings: to the end they may prove a healthy remedy to such as implore thy name with humility, and accuse themselves of the sins which ly upon their conscience: who deplore their crimes in the sight of thy divine clemency, and beseech with earnestnes and humility thy most serene pity. May they in fine by the invocation of thy holy name become profitable to all such as weare them, for the health of their soule and body, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A blessing.
O God, who has manifested the greatest wonders of thy power by the cure of diseases, and who were pleased that rings should be a pledge of fidelity in the patriark Judah, a priestly ornament in Aaron, the mark of a faithful guardian in Darius, and in this kingdom a remedy for divers diseases: graciously be pleased to blesse ✠ and sanctify ✠ these rings, to the end that all such as weare them may be free from all snares of the devil, may be defended by the power of celestial armour, and that no contraction of the nerves or any danger of the falling-sickness may infest them, but that in all sort of diseases by thy help they may find relief. In the name of the Father, ✠ and of the Son, ✠ and of the Holy Ghost ✠. Amen.
Blesse, O my soule, the Lord: and let all things which are within me praise his holy name.
Blesse, O my soule, the Lord: and do not forget all his favours.
He forgives all thy iniquities: he heales all thy infirmities.
He redeemes thy life from ruin: he crownes thee with mercy and commiseration.
He fils thy desires with what is good: thy youth like that of the eagle shal be renewed.
The Lord is he who does mercy: and does justice to those who suffer wrong.
The merciful and pitying Lord: the long sufferer and most mighty merciful.
He will not continue his anger for ever: neither wil he threaten for ever.
He has not dealt with us in proportion to our sins: nor has he rendred unto us according to our offences.
Because according to the distance of heaven from earth: so has he enforced his mercies upon those who feare him.
As far distant as the east is from the west: so far has he divided our offences from us.
After the manner that a father takes pity of his sons; so has the Lord taken pity of those who feare him: because he knows what we are made of.
He remembers that we are but dust: man like hey such are his days: like the flower in the field so wil he fade away.
Because his breath wil passe away through him, and he wil not be able to subsist: and it wil find no longer its owne place.
But the mercy of the Lord is from all eternity: and will be for ever upon those who feare him.
And his justice comes upon the children of their children: to those who keep his wil.
And are mindful of his commandements: to performe them.
The Lord in heaven has prepared himselfe a throne: and his kingdom shall reign over all.
Blesse yee the Lord all yee angels of his, yee who are powerful in strength: who execute his commands, at the hearing of his voice when he speakes.
Blesse yee the Lord all yee vertues of his: yee ministers who execute his wil.
Blesse yee the Lord all yee works of his throughout all places of his dominion: my soule praise thou the Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, and now, and ever: and for ever and ever. Amen.
Wee humbly implore, O merciful God, thy infinit clemency: that as we come to thee with a confident soule, and sincere faith, and a pious assurance of mind: with the like devotion thy beleevers may follow on these tokens of thy grace. May all superstition be banished hence, far be all suspicion of any diabolical fraud, and to the glory of thy name let all things succeede: to the end thy beleevers may understand thee to be the dispenser of all good; and may be sensible and publish, that whatsoever is profitable to soul or body, is derived from thee: through Christ our Lord. Amen.
These prayers being said, the king’s highnes rubbeth the rings between his hands, saying:
Sanctify, O Lord, these rings, and graciously bedew them with the dew of thy benediction, and consecrate them by the rubbing of our hands, which thou hast been pleased according to our ministery to sanctify by an external effusion of holy oyle upon them; to the end that what the nature of the mettal is not able to performe, may be wrought by the greatnes of thy grace: through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Then must holy water be cast on the rings, saying:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost. Amen.
O Lord, the only begotten Son of God, mediatour of God and men, Jesus Christ, in whose name alone salvation is sought for, and to such as hope in thee givest an easy access to thy Father; who when conversing among men, thyself a man, didst promise by an assured oracle flowing from thy sacred mouth, that thy Father should grant whatever was asked in thy name; lend a gracious eare of pity to these prayers of ours: to the end that approaching with confidence to the throne of thy grace, the beleevers may find by the benefits conferrd upon them, that by thy mediation we have obteined, what we have most humbly beg’d in thy Name; who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Wee beseech thee, O Lord, that the Spirit, which proceedes from thee, may prevent and follow on our desires; to the end that what we beg with confidence for the good of the faithful, we may efficaciously obteine by thy gracious gift: through Christ our Lord. Amen.
O most clement God; Father, Son, and holy Ghost: wee supplicate and beseech Thee, that what is here performed by pious ceremonies to the sanctifying of thy name, may be prevalent to the defense of our soule and body on earth; and profitable to a more ample felicity in heaven. Who livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen.