CHAPTER XXXII. RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

Schools of thought: progressive, 546; and conservative, 547--Religious character of the centuries: twelfth, 547; thirteenth, 548; fourteenth, 549; Chaucer’s “Poore parson;” fifteenth, 552.

APPENDIX I.

The history of the parish of Whalley, 557.

APPENDIX II.

Comparative view of the returns of the “Taxatio,” the “Valor,” and the modern “Clergy List” in the two rural deaneries of Barstaple, Essex, 562; and Brigg, Canterbury, 564.

APPENDIX III.

References to pictorial illustrations in MSS. in the British Museum, 567.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

BURIAL OF THE DEAD _Frontispiece_

The illustration taken from a French MS. of the middle of the fifteenth century [Egerton 2019, f. 142, British Museum] will reward a careful study. Begin with the two pictures introduced into the broad ornamental border at the bottom of the page. On the left are a pope, an emperor, a king, and queen; on the right Death, on a black horse, hurling his dart at them.

Go on to the initial D of the Psalm _Dilexi quoniam exaudiet Dominus vocem_: “I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my complaint.” It represents a canon in surplice and canon’s fur hood, giving absolution to a penitent who has been confessing to him (note the pattern of the hanging at the back of the canon’s seat). Next consider the picture in the middle of the border on the right. It represents the priest in surplice and stole, with his clerk in albe kneeling behind him and making the responses, administering the last Sacrament to the dying person lying on the bed. Next turn to the picture in the left-hand top corner of a woman in mourning, with an apron tied about her, arranging the grave-clothes about the corpse, and about to envelope it in its shroud. In the opposite corner, three clerks in surplice and cope stand at a lectern singing the Psalms for the departed; the pall which covers the coffin may be indistinctly made out, and the great candlesticks with lighted candles on each side of it. All these scenes lead us up to the principal subject, which is the burial. The scene is a graveyard (note the grave crosses) surrounded by a cloister, entered by a gate tower; the gables, chimneys, and towers of a town are seen over the cloister roof; note the skulls over the cloister arches, as though the space between the groining and the timber roof were used as a charnel house. The priest is asperging the corpse with holy water as the rude sextons lower the body into the grave. Note that it is not enclosed in a coffin--that was not used until comparatively recent times. He is assisted by two other priests, all three vested in surplices and black copes with a red-and-gold border; the clerk holds the holy-water vessel. Three mourners in black cloak and hood stand behind. The story is not yet finished. Above is seen our Lord in an opening through a radiant cloud which sheds its beams of light over the scene; the departed soul [de--parted = separated from the body] is mounting towards its Lord with an attitude and look of rapture; Michael the Archangel is driving back with the spear of the cross the evil angel disappointed of his prey. Lastly, study the beautiful border. Is it fanciful to think that the artist intended the vase of flowers standing upon the green earth as a symbol of resurrection, and the exquisite scrolls and twining foliage and many-coloured blossoms which surround the sad scenes of death, to symbolize the beauty and glory which surround those whom angels shall wait upon in death, and carry them to Paradise?

_To face page_

ORDINATION OF A PRIEST, LATE 12TH CENTURY 94

Gives the Eucharistic vestments of bishop and priest, a priest in cope and others in albes, the altar and its coverings, and two forms of chalice.

ORDINATION OF A DEACON, A.D. 1520 146

Gives the vestments of that period. The man in the group behind the bishop, who is in surplice and hood and “biretta,” is probably the archdeacon. Note the one candle on the altar, the bishop’s chair, the piscina with its cruet, and the triptych.

(1) AN ARCHDEACON LECTURING A GROUP OF CLERGYMEN ON THEIR SECULAR HABITS AND WEAPONS, 14TH CENTURY 174

He is habited in a red tunic and cap, the clergy in blue tunic and red hose and red tunic and blue hose.

(2) AN ARCHDEACON’S VISITATION 174

A CLERICAL PROCESSION 190

The illustration is taken from a French Pontifical of the 14th century in the British Museum [Tiberius, B. viii.], and represents part of the ceremonial of the anointing and crowning of a king of France. We choose it because it gives in one view several varieties of clerical costume. There was very little difference between French and English vestments, _e.g._ the only French characteristic here is that the bishop’s cope is embroidered with fleur-de-lys. On the left of the picture is the king, and behind him officers of state and courtiers. An ecclesiastical procession has met him at the door of the Cathedral of Rheims, and the archbishop, in albe, cope, and mitre, is sprinkling him with holy water; the clerk bearing the holy-water pot, and the cross-bearer, and the thurifer swinging his censer, are immediately behind him. Then come a group of canons. One is clearly shown, and easily recognized by the peculiar horned hood with its fringe of “clocks.” Lastly are a group of bishops, the most conspicuous bearing in his hands the ampulla, which contains the holy oil for the anointing.

The photograph fails here as in other cases to give the colours which define the costumes clearly and give brilliancy to the picture. The king’s tunic is crimson, and that of the nobleman behind him blue. The archbishop has a cope of blue _semée_ with gold fleur-de-lys; the water-bearer, a surplice so transparent that the red tunic beneath gives it a pink tinge; the cross-bearer, a blue dalmatic lined with red over a surplice; the canon a pink cope over a white surplice, and black hood. The first bishop wears a cope of blue, the second of red, the third of pink. The background is diapered blue and red with a gold pattern. The wall of the building is blue with a gold pattern; the altar-cloth, red and blue with gold embroidery.

INTERIOR OF A CHURCH AT THE TIME OF MASS 204

A SERMON 215

The bishop in blue chasuble and white mitre, people in red and blue tunics, two knights in chain armour, late 13th century.

(1) BAPTISM BY AFFUSION 233

The male sponsor holds the child over the font, while the priest pours water over its head from a shallow vessel. He wears a long full surplice, his stole is yellow _semée_ with small crosses and fringed. The parish clerk stands behind him, 15th century.

(2) BAPTISM BY IMMERSION 233

Here the priest wears an albe apparelled and girded, and an amice, but no stole; the sitting posture of the child occurs in other representations, 14th century.

CONFIRMATION. (From a printed Pontifical, A.D. 1520) 238

The bishop wears albe, dalmatic, cope, and mitre, the other clergy surplice and “biretta.”

(1) PRIEST IN SURPLICE, CARRYING CIBORIUM THROUGH THE STREET TO A SICK PERSON, PRECEDED BY THE PARISH CLERK WITH TAPER AND BELL 240

The ciborium, partly covered with a cloth, as in the illustration, which the priest carries, is silvered in the original illustration, and consequently comes out very imperfectly in the photograph.

(2) PRIEST, ATTENDED BY CLERK, GIVING THE LAST SACRAMENT, 14TH CENTURY 240

BISHOP AND DEACON IN ALBE AND TUNIC, ADMINISTERING HOLY COMMUNION 246

Two clerics in surplice hold the housel cloth to catch any of the sacred elements which might accidentally fall.

CONFESSION AT THE BEGINNING OF LENT 334

The priest in furred cope, the rood veiled; the altar has a red frontal. The two men are in blue habit. The woman on the right is all in black; the other, kneeling at a bench on the left, is in red gown and blue hood.

MARRIAGE 410

It represents the marriage of the Count Waleran de St. Pol with the sister of Richard, King of England. The count is in a blue robe, the princess in cloth of gold embroidered with green; the groomsman in red, the man behind him in blue, the prince in the background in an ermine cape. The ladies attending the princess wear cloth of gold, blue, green, etc.; the bishop is vested in a light green cope over an apparelled rochet, and a white mitre. The bishop (and in other representations of marriage) takes hold of the wrists of the parties in joining their hands.

VESPERS OF THE DEAD 458

The mourners in black cloaks are at the east end of the stalls; the pall over the coffin is red with a gold cross; the hearse has about eighteen lighted tapers; the ecclesiastics seem to be friars in dark brown habit (Franciscans).

MEDIÆVAL NORWICH. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 492

MEDIÆVAL EXETER. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 498

MEDIÆVAL BRISTOL. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 500

KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT THE SHRINE OF ST. EDMUND 535

The abbot is vested in a gorgeous cope and mitre; one of the monks behind him also wears a cope over his monk’s habit.

References to other pictorial illustrations in MSS. in the British Museum are given in Appendix III., p. 567.

PARISH PRIESTS AND THEIR PEOPLE.