John Ball, priest.
(From MS. of Froissart’s “Chronicle.”)
A little later he speaks of proud priests habited in patlocks (a short jacket worn by laymen), with peaked shoes and large knives or daggers.
In the poems of John Audelay, in the fifteenth century, a parish priest is described in—
His girdle harneshed with silver, his baselard hangs by.
Examples will be found in the Wills and Inventories, which we have placed at the end of this chapter (p. 173, etc.). We may add here that the silver ornaments of these zones were probably plates more or less ornamented with repoussé work and sometimes with enamel and precious stones; that the plates must have been of considerable substance is indicated by the following—
Thomas Sufwyk, Rector of Burton Noveray (not dated—c. 1390), leaves to his parish church his great missal and best vestment, and also his best silver zone to make a chalice.[171]
Sometimes a clergyman had not only a basilard habitually hanging at his girdle, but also a sword for use on occasion. Chaucer says—
Bucklers brode and swerdes long
Baudrike with baselardes kene
Sech toles about her necke they hong:
With Antichrist seche prestes been.
Robert Newby, Rector of Whyttchurche, and official of the Archdeacon of Oxford, in his will made in 1412, leaves to his brother his best sword, and to his niece his scarlet gown;[172] and in the wills subsequently given it will be seen that the Vicar of Gaynford, in 1412, leaves his best suit of armour and all his arrows; the Rector of Scrayningham, in 1414, leaves a suit of armour; and the dean of the collegiate church at Auckland leaves his best sword and a complete suit of armour.[173]
There are some quaint illustrations of these offending clergymen in the MSS. so often quoted here, Royal 6 E. VI., and 6 E. VII. Clerici pugnantes in duello at 6 E. VI., f. 302 verso; Clericus venator at f. 303 verso. Under the title De habitu Clericorum, in 6 E. VII. f. 197, there are three clerics on the left properly habited in red tunic and blue cloak and blue tunic and red cloak, and on the right three startling examples of the costume against which the Canons wage war, of short tunics and belted swords. See Plate.