These are all simple cases: but preambles far more elaborate are frequently found. Thomas Penistone (dated August 20, and proved September 5, 1601), after the fervent introduction which has been quoted, thus continues: “Sithence nothing in this world is more certain to man than death, nor anything more uncertain than the time of death, after due consideration of the frailty of this fleeting life even in the youngest and strongest persons, and that by the dying intestate of divers upon vain hope of longer life great discord, yea utter ruin, befalleth their children and posterities, in that in their life time no distribution is made of their substance amongst their posterity, but that the same is left to such as by force or deceit can obtain the same, and considering in the time of sickness oftentimes a man’s mind, which then ought only to be conversant in divine meditation, is so grieved with the pang of his disease that he is disable (how willing soever) in any good sort to remember and provide for wife children and friends according to his ability: upon these motives I Thomas Penistone, of Saint Margaret’s near the City of Rochester, in the County of Kent, Esquire, aged three and thirty years or thereabout, being in perfect mind and memory, (thanks be given to Almighty God therefor,) do ordain and make this my last will and testament in manner and form following.”
From the same year one other example may be given. “In the Name of God, Amen. Forasmuch as the state of man hath no perpetual dwelling within the carnal body, but is separable from it at the will and pleasure of Almighty God at His time appointed, which time is always uncertain, requisite expedient and most necessary it is that every Christian man prepare and make himself ready at all times to leave the same, so that whensoever he shall be called for he be not found sleeping and unprepared: therefore the ninth day of August, a.d. 1601, and in the three and fortieth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, I Nicholas Scott, citizen and grocer of London, being of perfect mind and memory, laud and praise be therefore given to Almighty God, and intending by His grace to prepare and make myself ready to go forward in the universal journey of all flesh, do make and declare this my last will and testament concerning the disposition of all and singular my goods chattels lands tenements and hereditaments whatsoever.”
Upon this basis the changes are rung in will after will, and not the least curious and elaborate pages of literature may be discovered in this mode.
CHAPTER XV
BURIALS AND FUNERALS
“It is a common use to entertain The knowledge of a great man by his train: How great’s the dead man then? There’s none that be So backed with troops of followers as he.” Quarles.
There is a tale told in Wales of a certain Sion Kent, who agreed with the Devil to surrender to him body and soul whether he were buried in or out of the Church. But, directing that his body should be laid beneath the church wall, he evaded the compact. It is not often that funeral directions have such eternal issues hanging upon them, but frequently in wills they are given due or elaborate consideration. “True it is,” says Fuller, “bodies flung in a bog will not stick there at the day of judgment; cast into a wood, will find out the way; thrown into a dungeon, will have free egress; left on the highway, are still in the ready road to the resurrection. Yet seeing they are the tabernacles of the soul, yea, the temples of the Holy Ghost, the Jews justly began, the Christians commendably continue, the custom of their solemn interment.”
Directions for the disposal of the body, and for the ceremony that shall attend it, are of outstanding interest both for historical and psychological reasons. As one peruses them there rise in the mind innumerable thoughts and fancies of sad or humorous import. Every phase of human nature is illustrated from pompous pride to lowliest humility, from pious reverence to vulgar unconventionality, from love of lamentation and display to hatred of mourning and show. Between the hours of death and of burial seem to cluster many of man’s most quaint ideas; here lies a harvest-ground for the student, and in the records of wills rich treasures may be discovered.
Perhaps few scenes of pageantry will live in the memory more than the funeral procession of Henry V., at Fulham, with its multitudes of lights and figures solemnly moving through the dusk. Such a reconstruction of the past, with its Catholic rites and ritual, its appeal to religious emotion, illustrates the picturesque scenes and ceremonies that lie behind the words of a will. Sometimes these directions are given at great length and with lavish elaboration. But not all can command magnificence in death, and the will of Henry VII.’s tailor may be quoted as typical of the common sort.
“In the name of God, Amen. The IIIIth day of the month of March, the year of our Lord God 1503, and the XIXth year of the reign of King Henry VIIth, I George Lovekyn, citizen of London, and tailor to our said sovereign lord the King, being whole of mind and in good memory, thanked be Almighty Jesu, make ordain and dispose this my present testament and last will in manner and form ensuing, that is to wit: First I bequeath and commend my soul to Almighty God my Maker and Saviour and to His blessed Mother, our Lady Saint Mary the Virgin, and to Saint George the holy martyr, and to all the holy company of heaven, and my body to be buried in the parish Church of St. Mary Wolnoth in Lombard Street of London afore the font there under the chapel of St. George by me there late made, that is to say in or by the burying place of Jane my first wife which lieth there buried, on whom Jesu have mercy. And I will that I have at my funeral XVI torches burning to be borne and holden by poor men to bring me to my burying place. And I will and desire if it conveniently may be that the four orders of friars mendicant of London shall accompany my body to the said burying place....”