‘The rubrics are in red ink, bright and fresh; and each page has a rich border of scrolls, leaves, flowers, and fruit, with occasional figures of children, &c. I enumerate the most important subjects. Folio 1b, David with head of Goliath, St. George and the Dragon, and a child with a skull; folio 2b, arms of the city of London; folio 3a, VERITAS TEMPORIS FILIA (the Queen’s favourite motto), with a sword and sceptre; folios 3b and 4a, large terminal figures with grapes; folio 4a, arms of France and England quarterly; folio 4b, DN̅S MIHI ADIVTOR; folios 5a and b, portcullis and rose; folios 6a and b, PACIENTIA and PRVDĒTIA, with allegorical figures; folios 7a and b, CHARITAS and IVSTICIA; folios 8a and b, FIDES and SPES; folios 9a and b, FORTITVDO and TEMPERANCIA.’
With the death of Mary, the ceremonial seems finally to have fallen into disuse. There is, however, a passage in the Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica of Nicholas Harpsfield,[258] which was written entirely in the reign of Elizabeth, which seems to throw some doubt on the point. The words are as follows:
‘Quin et annulus ille, de quo diximus, magna in Westmonasteriensi Londini coenobio postea reverentia reservatus, adversus comitialem morbum multis profuit: indeque etiam ortum, ut ad sacram parasceuen Reges Angliae certos annulos statis quibusdam precibus et caerimoniis consecrare consueverint, adversus eundem morbum salutares. Quae consuetudo et ad nostra usque tempora perducta est, multique huiusmodi annulorum beneficium, nostra etiam aetate, senserunt.’ [And further the above-mentioned ring was reverently preserved afterwards in the monastery of Westminster in London, and relieved many of epilepsy. That too was the origin of the custom of the Kings of England on Good Friday consecrating certain rings with set prayers and ceremonies, for the cure of the same disease. Which custom has persisted even down to our own times, and many even in our own lifetimes have derived benefit from rings of this kind.]
Nicholas Harpsfield, though he did not write till the reign of Elizabeth, was born as early as A.D. 1519, so that his words are consistent with discontinuance of the ceremony after the time of Queen Mary.
It remains to consider what diseased states were embraced by the term ‘cramp’. Epilepsy, convulsions, and rheumatism certainly. All these terms have in common the idea of muscular contraction or spasm, and their relation in usage to one another may be represented graphically as under:
Confusion of these terms is far more marked in medical than in lay writers; but at the same time there is little doubt that the conservative sentiment inspired by the royal ceremonial kept the term ‘cramp’ alive in a sense that was all but obsolete in the common diction.
Chaucer applies ‘crampe’ to muscular spasm:
But wel he felte about his herte crepe ...
The crampe of death, to streyne him by the herte.[259]
Linacre, as we have seen, speaks of cramp-rings, in 1518, as a charm against spasms, while about the same year Polydore Vergil speaks of the royal cramp-rings as a cure for the morbus comitialis. Each of these two writers clearly indicates epilepsy. In 1526 Magnus speaks definitely of cramp-rings as relieving a man lying in the falling-sickness, a term habitually applied to epilepsy. Nicholas Harpsfield too, writing in the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, speaks of cramp-rings blessed by the kings as remedies for the morbus comitialis. In all probability royal cramp-rings were used for epilepsy and epilepsy only, but it is quite possible, and I am inclined to think probable, that other cramp-rings had a less exclusive use.