It must be remembered that before 1752 the Old Style was still used in England. The year therefore commenced on March 25th instead of, as it does at present, on January 1st. When the calendar was corrected in 1752 eleven days were omitted, and September 2nd was followed by September 14th. The people bewailed it, and contemporary skits are numerous, echoing the popular cry of ‘Give us back our lost eleven days.’ On the Continent the alteration had taken place long before. In some English parish church registers we find confusion as to the actual year date to be used for the months between Christmas and Lady Day. This uncertainty may be observed before 1750. In many country places the old style was maintained long after the year 1752.
I have a very curious old calendar of 1483; in it the saints’ days are veritable red-letter days. Many of the saints named are unknown to us either by name or legend, but in court rolls only the principal saints’ days are mentioned as those on which the court sat.
Some months seem to have been more favoured with saints’ days than others. The following list, though by no means complete, gives the chief English saints:
| January. | |
| 1. | Circumcisio Domini. |
| 13. | St. Veronica. |
| 13. | St. Hilary. |
| 25. | Conversion of St. Paul. |
| February. | |
| 1. | St. Bride, or Bridget. |
| 2. | Purification of the Virgin, or Candlemas Day. |
| 24. | St. Matthias the Apostle. |
| March. | |
| 1. | St. David. |
| 2. | St. Chad. |
| 4. | St. Lucius, Pope and Martyr, A.D. 253. |
| 14. | St. Benet, or Benedict. |
| 18. | St. Edward. |
| 19. | St. Joseph, the Virgin’s husband. |
| 20. | St. Cuthbert. |
| 25. | Annunciation of the Virgin. Lady-Day. |
| April. | |
| 23. | St. George. |
| 25. | St. Mark the Evangelist. |
| May. | |
| 1. | St. Philip and St. James the Less, Apostles. |
| 2. | St. Athanasius. |
| 3. | Invention (or discovery) of the Holy Cross. |
| 5. | St. Hilary, Bishop of Arles. The two saints of this name are confusing, but this St. Hilary is rarely mentioned in English documents. |
| 26. | St. Augustine. |
| June. | |
| 11. | St. Barnabas, Apostle. |
| 13. | St. Anthony of Padua. |
| 22. | St. Alban. |
| 24. | Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Midsummer Day. |
| 29. | Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles. |
| 30. | St. Paul, Apostle. |
| July. | |
| 2. | Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. |
| 15. | St. Swithin. |
| 22. | St. Mary Magdalen. |
| 25. | St. James the Great, Apostle. |
| 25. | St. Christopher. Lammastide. |
| August. | |
| 1. | St. Peter ad Vincula, or St. Peter in chains. |
| 5. | St. Oswald. |
| 6. | The Transfiguration of our Lord. |
| 15. | The Assumption of the Virgin. |
| 21. | St. Bernard. |
| 24. | St. Bartholomew, Apostle. |
| 28. | St. Austin, or Augustine. |
| 29. | Beheading of St. John the Baptist. |
| September. | |
| 1. | St. Egidius, or Giles. |
| 8. | The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. |
| 14. | Exaltation of the Holy Cross. |
| 21. | St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. |
| 29. | St. Michael and All Angels. Michaelmas. |
| October. | |
| 4. | St. Francis of Assisi. |
| 9. | St. Denis, or Dionysius of Paris. |
| 17. | St. Audry, or Etheldreda. |
| 18. | St. Luke the Evangelist. |
| 21. | St. Ursula, and 11,000 virgins. |
| 25. | St. Crispin. |
| 28. | St. Simon the Canaanite, Apostle. |
| November. | |
| 1. | All Saints’ Day. |
| 2. | All Souls’ Day. |
| 11. | St. Martin. Martinmas. |
| 16. | St. Edmund. |
| 21. | Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. |
| 22. | St. Cecilia. |
| 25. | St. Catherine. |
| 30. | St. Andrew, Apostle. |
| December. | |
| 6. | St. Nicholas. |
| 8. | The Conception of the Blessed Virgin. |
| 13. | St. Lucy. |
| 21. | St. Thomas, Apostle. |
| 25. | The Nativity of our Blessed Lord. Christmas. |
| 26. | St. Stephen. |
| 27. | St. John, Evangelist and Apostle. |
| 28. | The Holy Innocents. |
| 29. | St. Thomas à Beckett. |
The saints’ days were brought before the people in many ways—in the village feasts, or the dedication of churches, in the mural paintings which covered the church walls, and in the Christian names given at baptism. In the old rolls the date of the month is never mentioned, the principal feast-day nearest to it being used instead.
Saints’ days, as holidays, were probably the most convenient days for assembling together for business.
CHAPTER VII.
MONASTIC CHARTERS.
Every abbey of any importance kept a chartulary—in other words, a catalogue of its possessions in the copies of grants of land all collected within one or more volumes—a carefully compiled work, giving all the benefactions and privileges of the foundation, entered by the scribe or secretary of the establishment, who must have spent many hours of his life over the work, for these books are rarely found to be the work of more than one, or at most two, men—one handwriting continuing on until replaced by another. Great care and neatness was used in the formation of each black letter—even and perfect as the most exact printing ever done by machinery. Each charter was emphasized with an elaborate capital letter, and the index or headings to them were filled in after the writing was finished, as is proved by the fact that these were sometimes never completed. The probability is that they were the work of another artist or illuminator, and appear to have been sketched in with a brush or hair pencil, the writing having been executed with a quill pen. Colour is sometimes employed to embellish and ornament the work, but in the oldest chartularies colour, usually red, is only used to mark special passages, or, as in Domesday Book, to point out names of persons or places. The largest work on English monasteries was compiled by Sir William Dugdale; but in so extensive a work as the ‘Monasticon’ too much was undertaken; it was impossible to search deeply enough into existing records for information concerning every religious house throughout England. Therefore, although a valuable foundation to start with, much more may still be ascertained from manuscripts, public and private, particularly with regard to the lesser religious houses or cells to foreign abbeys.