THOMAS MORE AND JOHN FISHER.
Although I am afraid "NOTES AND QUERIES" may not be considered as open to contributions purely bibliographical, and admitting I am uncertain whether the following copy of the treatise of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, has been before noted, I am induced to send this extract from Techener's Bulletin du Bibliophile for May 1851. The book is in the library at Douai.
"This Treatise concernynge the fruytful Saynges of David the King and prophete in the seven penytencyall psalmes, devyded in ten sermons, was made and compyled by the ryght reverente fader in god Johan Fyssher, doctour of dyvinyte and bysshop of Rochester, at the exortacion and sterynge of the most excellent pryncesse Margarete, Countesse of Richemount and Derby, and moder to out souverayne Lorde Kynge Hēry the VII."
It is described as a small 4to., printed upon vellum, in Gothic letters, at London, 1508, by Wynkyn de Worde, and contains 146 leaves. On the first leaf it has a portcullis, crowned with the motto "Dieu et mon Droit." On the recto of the last leaf there is—
"Here endeth the exposycyon of the 7 psalmes. Enprynted at London in the fletestrete, at the sygne of ye Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde. In the yere of oure lorde M.CCCCC.VIII. ye 16 day of ye moneth of Juyn. The XXIII. yere of ye reygne of our souverayne Lorde Kynge Hēry the Seventh."
At the back, there is the sun, the monogram of Wynkyn de Worde—the letters W. C. displayed as usual—and beneath, "Wynkyn de Worde."
At the beginning of the book, "sur une garde en vélin" (a fly-leaf of vellum?), there is written in a very neat hand the following ten verses, the profession of faith of Thomas Morus and of his friend John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester:
"The surest meanes for to attaine
The perfect waye to endlesse blisse
Are happie lief and to remaine
Wthin ye church where virtue is;
And if thy conscience be sae sounde
To thinse thy faith is truth indeede
Beware in thee noe schisme be founde
That unitie may have her meede;
If unitie thow doe embrace
In heaven (en?)joy possesse thy place."
Beneath—
"Qui non rectè vivit in unitate ecclesiæ
Catholicæ, salvus esse non potest."
And lower on the same page—
"Thomas Morus dn̄s cancellarius Angliæ
Joh. Fisher Epûs Roffensis."
It is traditionally reported, upon the testimony of some Anglican Benedictines (an order now extinct), that the lines which contain the profession of faith, and those which follow, are in the handwriting of Bishop Fisher, and that the work was presented by him to the chancellor, during their imprisonment, when by order of Henry VIII. the chancellor was denied the consolation of his books.
In the same library there is a fine Psalter, which belonged to Queen Elizabeth. The Livre d'Heures of Mary Queen of Scots was here also to be found: "Maria, glorious martyr and Queen of Scotland." It is conjectured these books were brought to Douai by the fugitive English Roman Catholic priests. In 1790 their collections were confiscated and given to the public library of Douai. It would be of interest to ascertain, if possible, the authenticity of the Heures à l'Usage, stated to have belonged to Mary Queen of Scots. Upon this point one may be permitted to be sceptical. I have myself seen two. One of these, it was said, had been used by Mary on the scaffold, and contained a note in the handwriting, as I think, of James II. attesting the fact. It was understood to have been obtained from a monastery in France. The other, a small Prayer Book MS. in vellum, of good execution, had the signature "M." with a line I think over it of "O Lord, deliver me from my enemies!" in French. I am, however, now writing from memory, and, in the first case, of very many years.
Whether the line, "Maria, glorious martyr and Queen of Scotland," be written in the Psalter, or has been added by the mental excitement of M. Duthillœul, the librarian at Douai, I cannot decide. The grand culmination of "and Queen of Scotland" forms doubtless a very striking anti-thesis: but neither the possessor of the book nor a priest would have so sunk the martyr, although a woman and a queen were alike concerned, as this line does. Lowndes states there is a copy of the bishop's treatise on vellum at Cambridge. A copy is in the British Museum; but the title, according, to Lowndes, has seven sermons. It will be observed the title now given has ten.
S. H.