Will of Lady Joan De Cobham
(1369)
“Will of Joan De Cobham, of Starburghe. August 13, 1369. My body to be buried in the church-yard of St. Mary Overhere, in Southwark, before the church door, where the image of the blessed Virgin sitteth on high over that door: and I Will that a plain marble stone be laid over my body.
“I Will that VII thousand masses be said for my soul by the Canons of Tunbrugge and Tanfugge, and the four Orders of Friars in London, viz., the Friars-Preachers, Minors, Augustines, and Carmelites, who for so doing shall have xxix l. iii s. iv d. Also I Will that on my funeral day twelve poor persons, clothed in black gowns and hoods, shall carry twelve torches; I bequeath to the Church of Lyngefeld a frontore with the arms of Berkeley and Cobham standing on white and purple; to Reginald, my son, a ring with a diamond; to Sir Henry Grey and Dame Joan, his wife, and to that Joane my daughter; to Joane, daughter to that Joane. I Will that my house in Southwark be sold to pay my Lord’s debts, and to found prayers in the parish church of Langele-Borell for the souls of Sir John de la Mare, Knt., some time lord there, Sir Reginald Cobham, Sir Thomas Berkeley, and for the souls of my benefactors. If Reginald, my son, or any other of my heirs, shall appropriate that church for the maintenance of two priests to celebrate divine service there for ever, as it was intended and conditioned by the said Sir John de la Mare when he sold that lordship of Langele, with that of Lye, to my husband, in the presence of the Lord Berkeley, my father, then I Will that my Executors shall enfeoffe the said Reginald, or his heirs, in my water-mill at Edulme Bridge, and in my house at Southwark, for ever; to Sir John Cobham; to John de Cobham, of Devonshire.”
The Will of Petrarch
(1370)
To the cultivated reader everything relating to a man who may be considered the phenomenon of his age must be interesting. The document we subjoin is especially valuable as supplying the key to a mind which has drawn to itself our warmest sympathies, and whose written thoughts are among the most attaching bequests of poetry.
The will of the poet-philosopher of Vaucluse is dated “pridiè nonas Aprilis, 1370,” four years before his death, when he was sixty-six years of age, having been born at Arezzo, 20th of July, 1304.
He prefaces it with moral reflections on the certainty of death, but the uncertainty of its summons, and the necessity of putting one’s affairs in order. He then proceeds to state that what he possesses is of so little value that he is in some sort ashamed to make a will; “sed,” adds he, “divitum atque inopium curæ, de rebus licet imparibus, pares sunt.”
After recommending his soul to Jesus Christ and imploring the succor of Mary, of St. Michael, and all the Saints, he orders very expressly that he may be buried without any sort of pomp,—“absque omni pompa et cum summa humilitate et abjectione, quanta esse potest, ...” and renders his heir and his friends responsible for the execution of this clause. He claims no tears, as useless to the departed, but begs the prayers of the survivors, of which he has need.
Not knowing where he may be at the time of his death, he designates in different cities the spot he would choose for his burial, naming Padua, Venice, Milan, Rome, and Parma, and leaves a legacy of 200 gold ducats to the church at Padua, and 20 to the church in which he shall be interred.
Among special bequests is one to the Governor of Padua, of a very fine picture of the Virgin Mary—“opus Joctii, pictoris egregii”—which had sent been him from Florence by his friend Michael Navis. “In beholding this painting,” he says, “pulchritudinem ignorantes, non intelligunt; magistri autem, artis, stupent.”