[3] “History of Rome,” translated by W. P. Dickson, London, 1886, book viii. chap. v.
[4] J. Horsley, “Britannia Romana,” London, 1732, p. 391.
[5] H. M. Scarth, “Roman Britain,” S.P.C.K., London, 1883, p. 121. Cf. T. Codrington, “Roman Roads in Britain,” S.P.C.K., 1903.
[6] When Henry VIII gave the lands of the dissolved monastery of Christ Church to Canterbury Cathedral, he declared that he made this donation “in order that charity to the poor, the reparation of roads and bridges, and other pious offices of all kinds should multiply and spread afar.” Elton, “Tenures of Kent,” London, 1867, p. 21. The gift is made “in liberam, puram et perpetuam eleemosynam.” This pious character was long continued: “As late as the period of the Commonwealth land and money devoted to the maintenance of bridges and causeys were definitely included among the charitable uses which were to be unaffected by the sequestration of Bishops’ land and other ecclesiastical revenues.” C. T. Flower, “Public Works in Mediæval Law,” Selden Society, 1905, i. p. xxi.
[7] Thorold Rogers, “History of Agriculture and Prices in England,” Oxford, 1866, vol. i. p. 138.
[8] See “Recherches historiques sur les congrégations hospitalières des frères pontifes,” by M. Grégoire, late Bishop of Blois. Paris, 1818.
[9] This practice was inherited from the Roman builders, whose formularies continued to be transcribed throughout the middle ages. See Victor Mortet: “Un Formulaire du VIIIe siécle pour les fondations d’édifices et de ponts d’après des sources d’origine antique,” in “Bulletin monumental . . . de la Société française d’Archéologie,” vol. 71, 1907, p. 443. The brief chapter in the “Mappæ Clavicula” (still copied in the twelfth century), entitled “De fabrica in aqua,” recommends that, “Si fabricam in aqua necesse fuerit erigere, facis arcam triangulam,” arca meaning caisson. In this we see, Mr. Mortet writes, “la disposition venue de l’antiquité, transmise et maintenue au moyen-âge, de la forme prismatique triangulaire des avant-becs des ponts” (p. [461]). This characteristic was conspicuous, e.g. in the Avignon and London bridges (see the picture, p. [45]) as well as in the famous Roman Pont du Gard.
[10] On French mediæval bridges still in existence, their dates, modes of construction, crosses and chapels, see C. Enlart, “Manuel d’Archéologie Française,” Paris, 1902, ff. vol. ii. p. 264.
[11] May 17, 1373, original in French. “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. Armitage Smith, London, 1911, vol. ii. p. 179. The work was apparently in progress in 1374, since we find, on the 15th of September of that year, an order to deliver to the same “trois cheisnes covenables” from Okeden forest. Ibid., p. 240.
[12] “Ubi frequens habetur populi transitus.” “Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense,” ed. Hardy, Rolls Series, 1875, vol. i. pp. 615, 641, A.D. 1314. This was a quite usual practice. The popes, who had every reason to be interested in the welfare of the great bridge at Avignon, published numerous bulls granting indulgences and other spiritual favours to the benefactors of the edifice. See “Bullaire des indulgences concédées avant 1431 à l’œuvre du Pont d’Avignon,” published by the Marquis de Ripert-Monclar, Paris, 1912. The work contains the Latin text of papal bulls of 1281, 1290, 1343, 1353, 1366, 1371, 1397, 1430, 1431. The bull of 1343, issued by Pope Clement VI, at Avignon, grants to givers “tres annos et tres quadragenas,” and, under certain conditions, a plenary indulgence at the time of death: “Siquis vero catholicus dictis fratribus . . . secundum quantitatem substancie et qualitatem . . . de bonis sibi a Deo collatis dederit vel transmiserit quoquo modo ad reparacionem dicti pontis, . . . si talis infra annum . . . vere penitens ac confessus ab hac luce decesserit, volumus et gratia speciali concedimus quod ab omnibus peccatis suis remaneat absolutus.” As for those who should be so bold as to hamper in any way the collections made by the brothers for their bridge, their punishment would be nothing less than excommunication (p. 6).