“By the authority apostolical, to me in this behalf committed, We absolve thee A. B. from all thy sins confessed with thy mouth, and being contrite with thy heart, and whereof thou wouldst be confessed, if they came into thy memory: and we grant unto thee plenary remission of all manner of sins, and we promise unto thee thy part of the reward of all just men, and of everlasting salvation. And as many privileges as are granted unto them that go to fight for the Holy Land, we grant onto thee; and of all the prayers and benefits of the church, the universal synod, as also the holy catholic church we make thee partaker.”—(See Fox, Vol. 1.)
[360] There were doubtless many Lynn people in that army; the general being lord of this town.
[363] It is somewhat remarkable, that though both Mackerell and Parkin appear to have made use of that MS Volume, and the former drew most of his materials from it, for the most part verbatim, yet neither of them take any notice of those letters, which yet form the most curious part of the whole volume.
[365] The documents or papers above referred to, consist of 1. a Letter from John Wentworth mayor of Lynn to the king (Hon. iv.) dated on St. Martin’s day 1403, and complaining of the opposite party, as outrageous persons who committed the most horrid crimes, and proceeded in the most riotous manner against their opponents, with the intent to spoil and rob them of their goods, burn their houses, slay and dismember their persons, &c. It is not the first letter he wrote to his majesty, for he refers to others of anterior date. Those however are lost, or we might possess a more correct knowledge of this business. The second of those papers is a Letter from Petipas, then mayor, to some of his friends, complaining of Wentworth and his adherents and assentaunts for troubling him in the discharge of his duty, and requiring them “be bille or be mouthe” [by letter or by word of mouth] to acquaint his reverend lord of Norwich [i.e. the bishop] with the affair, and solicit his interference. &c. Its date is 1413, the first of Henry V.—The third is from the same, and seemingly to the same, and written, it is presumed, in 1414, the former part of which was the latter part of his 2nd year, for he was then mayor two years successively. The fourth was from Thomas Hunt, who became mayor in the autumn of 1415 to Johan Spencer, viscount de Norff. [i.e. the High Sheriff of the county] and is dated “atte Lenn ye tede day of the mone of Juylet, ye yere of ye regne of King Henry ye fyft ye ferth:” which was A.D. 1416. This curious paper complains of Thomas Felwell, goldsmith, who had been indicted for his misdeeds, as an instigator of a rysing and ryot—also of Thomas Hardell, and Thomas Enemethe, “and very many of the misdoers resorten and drawen again in counsailles to Barth. Petipas in sustenance of his p. tie,” &c. It also offers the said Viscount, or high sheriff, a present of a young He-Bear, which seems a queer circumstance. But what makes this paper of most importance, is its confirming, along with the other documents, the very distracted state of the town at that period.—The fifth is addressed “to the lord bishopp of Norwich” (the above John de Wakeryng it seems.) “from his owen humblest tenants and devout Bedesmen, the Mayre and good men of his town of Lenne Bishopp.” Its date is the 9 of March, the 3rd of Henry V. which seems to answer to A.D. 1415, or 1415–16, and the mayor was probably the above Thomas Hunt.—The sixth and last of those papers was a royal injunction or mandate from “Henry (VI.) by the Grace of God king of England and of France and lord of Ireland unto the Mair of the town of Lenne Byshopp;” and relates chiefly, as was before hinted, to some irregularity or neglect in the choice of the 24 Jurats, directing and enjoining that they should be freemen and lawful, and of the most discreet, sufficient, and least suspicious persons of the said town; and each of them possessing property in lands and tenements to the amount of C. S (i.e. one hundred shillings) a year—equal no doubt to more than 100l. a year now: also directing that in case any of the 24 Jurats happened to die in the course of the year, others equally unexceptionable should be immediately chosen in their room, &c.—As a sample of the style and orthography of the magistrates of Lynn 400 years ago, and a specimen of their mode of address to their prelatical lord and master, we shall here subjoin the mayor and aldermen’s Letter to bishop Wakeryng.
“Worschipfull Lord and reverent fader in God, we commaund us unto yow, humble thankant yow wt alle oure hertes, of good & graciouse lordschip yt. yo han schewed to us before yis tyme prayand to yow of good continunace & revrent fader, for as meche as we han conteyned be John Thornham yor. servt. yt ye are & will be graciouse lord to us, therefor as unknowen men, we wryten to yow in our symple manr. preying yow yt Barth. Petypas, Will Hallyate, Thomas Middleton taylor, Thomas Barrington goldsmyth, Thomas Monethe, Thomas Beckham, John Balders, Thomas Littleport, Thomas Hardell, John Blome, Rich. Baxter, Andrew Fourbe, abide out of yor. towne of lenne unto the tyme of yor. stalling at Norwich, the whiche schalle not be longe be the grace of God, atte which tyme we shalle mete with yow & fulliche declare to yow all manr. of hevynesse ye whiche yay han wroght to us, & yt. to yor. worschipfull person disclosed & fulliche in hye & in lowe, put it in govnance of yow & of yor counsayll, & for truly sire sithen ye. tyme yt. yay wenten out of ye town of Lenne, of whiche ye shun sone be lord of, be ye grace of God stode never in beter reste & pees than it hath done sithen that tyme, & yet dothe atte this day, & be yor. good governance, these persons above wretyn sett an syde, we tryste in God to have reste & pees for ever more in yor. towne & in our persons ye shal fynd us as lowly tenants as any that longs to yow within yor. lordshippes, & wt. our bodyes & our goodes, be as lowly to yow worschipful and revrend fader in God we preye, ye. holy trinite: keep yow body and soule, & fullfill your desires as ye can yor. self devise. Written at Lenne ye IX day of Marche under ye seall of the office of Mayralty.
Your owen humblest tenants and devout Bedesmen,
Mayre and good men of your towne of Lenne Bishopp.”
In this lowly and abject manner did these humblest tenants and devout beadesmen, the mayor and corporation of Lynn, of that day, approach their high and mighty lord, bishop Wakeryng. They were indeed his subjects and vassals, as their predecessors had long been; and they might think that such cringing conduct became them: but some of them would occasionally shew a disposition to kick and resist, as had been the ease in bishop Spencer’s time, and also now, it seems, in the case of Patipas, as well as of Miller afterwards, who is said to have gone to law with the bishop and cast him. But, in general, corporations, while they are some of the most unfeeling, relentless, and tyrannical towards their inferiors, are at the same time some of that most abject and obsequious of all men towards their superiors and masters: hardly presuming at any time to have a will of their own. They are as ready to erect statues to bad as to good kings; and the premier, however corrupt or flagitious, is pretty surf of being always their lord chancellor, or keeper of their conscience.
[370] That year the king and queen, with their eldest son Arthur prince of Wales, and Margaret countess of Richmond, the king’s mother, visited Lynn, and were lodged at the Austin monastery, on the site of which Mr. Rishton’s house now stands. The occasion of this royal visit we know not.
[372] See Tour of Norfolk 286, &c. also Beaut. of Engl. as before.
[377] See Smith’s Inquiry, 2. 101. He also observes that how servile soever may have been originally the condition of the inhabitants of the towns, they yet arrived at liberty and independence much earlier than the occupiers of land in the country.
[379] Smith, as before, 104. Among the other principal works that relate to these matters are Madox Firma Burgi, and Brady’s historical treatise of cities and boroughs.