Late Monasticism and the Reformation

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LATE MONASTICISM AND THE REFORMATION

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A.G. DICKENS

THE HAMBLEDON PRESS LONDON

AND

RIO GRANDE

Published by The Hambledon Press 1994 102 Gloucester Avenue, London NW1 8HX (U.K.) P.O. Box 162, Rio Grande, Ohio 45674 (U.S.A.) ISBN 1 85285 091 4 © A.G. Dickens 1994 A description of this book is available from the British Library and from the Library of Congress

Printed on acid-free paper and bound in Great Britain by Cambridge University Press

Contents

Preface

vii

Acknowledgements

viii

Foreword to The Register or Chronicle of Butley Priory, Suffolk, 1510-1535, by J.N.L. Myres Editor's Preface

ix xiv

Abbreviations

xvi PART ONE

1

The Register or Chronicle ofBulley Priory, Suffolk, Introduction

(i) (ii) (iii) (iv)

1510-1535

The Sources Authorship The Disciplinary and Economic Background The Monastic Mind

TKXT AND NOTKS

Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Glossary

I II III IV V VI

1 1 5 8 17 25

The Household List Mannyng to Cromwell Butley Augmentations Grantees The Pakeman and Baret Wills Letter from the Sultan of Babylon The Election of Mannyng

71 74 75 76 79 80 83

vi

Late Monasticism and the Reformation

PART TWO 2

Luther and the Humanists

3

The Early Expansion of Protestantism in England, 1520-58

101

I II III IV V

101 104 111 125 129

The Timing of the English Reformation The Major Sources and their Limitations Where did Protestantism Most Readily Take Root? Continuing Research: The Study of Wills Some Residual Problems

87

4

Early Protestantism and the Church in Northamptonshire

133

5

The Shape of Antidericalism and the English Reformation

151

6

The Battle of Finsbury Field and its Wider Context

177

7

South Yorkshire Letters, 1555

191

8

The Purpose of Historical Study at the University

199

Index

209

Preface A successor to my Reformation Studies (1982), this volume contains a further collection of my shorter works, most (but not all) drawn from later years. It begins with my edition of the chronicle of Butley Priory, a task I enjoyed doing more than any other throughout my career. This piece attracted notice from scholars and antiquaries at the time (1951): perhaps since it is by far the latest English monastic chronicle and also a major addition to the sources for East Anglian history. The unusual circumstances surrounding the discovery of the manuscript and the publication of the volume are related in his valuable Foreword by my esteemed friend J.N.L. Myres, at that time Bodley's Librarian. Financed by Dr M.J. Rendall, previously Headmaster of Winchester, who resided in the former gatehouse of Butley Priory, the book became an elegant product, and it soon sold out. I believe it will be thought worthy of recovery within this present collection. The remaining items relate with one exception to the late middle ages and the Reformation. At least in terms of modern controversy, two of these might be regarded as more significant than the rest. The first of them (Chapter 3) seeks to analyse the phenomenon of anticlericalism as it developed in England from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The other (Chapter 5) consists of a survey, geographically organised, of early and mid Tudor Protestantism. Both these phenomena are depicted as almost mythical by a few recent revisionists. While these latter have contributed toward a cautious hypothesis, I believe they are in substance mistaken. The evidences of late medieval anticlericalism are indeed clear and voluminous. Likewise, despite our lack of precise statistics, Protestant opinion had already by 1558 become a powerful force throughout large and important areas of England. In other words, William Cecil did not go mad when in 155859 he swiftly made Anglicanism the official religion of the country. Chapter 4 provides one of the test-cases in this same field, being an analysis of society and religion in the smallish but by no means untypical county of Northampton. Chapters 6 and 7 derive from the short reign of Mary Tudor. The first concerns the dangerous mock-battle staged by hundreds of London schoolboys around the politico-religious hatreds of the year 1554: it ends by glancing at a few parallel conflicts elsewhere. The other Marian feature prints four heartfelt, traditionalist letters sent by William Watson, a poverty-stricken South Yorkshire priest, to his neighbour Robert Parkyn, that once obscure chronicler and religious writer to whom I have devoted much space in Reformation Studies and elsewhere.

viii


In this present volume the Continental Reformation is far less broadly represented, yet at least I discuss one highly significant topic in Chapter 2: Luther's complex relationship with the humanism which helped to shape some of his most vital concepts. We spend much effort in drawing contrasts between him and Erasmus, but most emphatically they lived - and markedly overlapped - within the same world of ideas. My last essay has no special reference to the sixteenth century. Indeed it may be dismissed as 'broad' even to the point of fantasy. It was published in an educational journal soon after my return (1954) from a lively and instructive year of teaching in the excellent History Department at the distinguished University of Rochester, New York. In writing, I wanted to suggest in general terms some objectives which could inspire us in delivering history to undergraduate students, most of whom would become teachers rather than practising historians. When I wrote the article, I had already been teaching the subject for over twenty years, besides observing at first hand some of its catastrophic episodes in both England and Germany during the years 1940-45. Now, after further decades of mixed experiences, I remain uncertain whether I selected the best points. Even so, my humble essay may conveivably become one of those many period-pieces left over for discussion by the new century. Two things seem certain: that history will remain an important academic option alongside a new range of historical tragedies; and that the human race as a whole will not become conspicuously wiser or kinder after the year 2000.

Acknowledgements The items in this book were originally published in the following places and are reprinted by the kind permission of the original publishers. 1. 2

3 4 5 6

7 8

Privately printed (Winchester, 1951). Politics and Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honour of H.G. Koenigsberger, ed. Phyllis Mack and Margaret C.Jacob (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 199-213. Archivfilr Reformationsgeschichte, Ixxviii (1987), pp. 187-221. Northamptonshire Past and Present, viii (1984), pp. 27-39. Politics and Society in Reformation Europe: Essays for Sir Geoffrey Elton, ed. E.I. Kouri and Tom Scott (Macmillan, 1987), pp. 379-410. Humanism and Reform: The Church in Europe, England and Scotland, 1400-1643. Essays in Honour of James K. Cameron (Studies in Church History, Subsidia 8), edited by James Kirk (Blackwell, 1991), pp. 271-87. Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, vi (1950), pp. 278-84. Occasional Papers of the Institute of Education, University of Hull, i (1957), pp. 1-12.

Foreword By J. N. L. MYRES

B

ETWEEN 1931 and 1933 I had the privilege of supervising on behalf of Dr. M. J. Kendall, C.M.G., the excavation of the remains of Butley Priory, in the noble gatehouse of which he had his residence. The results were subsequently published, and I took the occasion to summarise the known history of the house as well as to describe the discoveries made during the excavations.1 In the course of this work it became apparent to me that the last fifty years of the Priory's history were unusually well documented. There were the full accounts of the Episcopal Visitations of 1494, 1514, 1520, 1526, 1532 already in print, the documents and correspondence connected with the interesting elections of the last two Priors in 1509 and 1529 and with the dissolution of the House in 1538, and the local wills from the Suffolk Archdeaconry Records now in the Ipswich Probate Registry. Moreover, unlike most of its contemporaries, the Priory had maintained a Register or Chronicle covering at least the years 1509 - 1536. A monastic chronicle of this period is of course something of the greatest rarity. Unfortunately this document, known and used by Tanner and Peter le Neve early in the eighteenth century, had disappeared from sight after a sale in 1777, and I was unable to trace its whereabouts. This was all the more tantalising in that material apparently derived from it had been used in articles published in the East Anglian Miscellany as recently as 1913 and 1914. Beyond the statement that this material had come from the Bodleian Library, I was unable to discover anything of its source ; for there was no trace of any Butley Chronicle in Bodley.2 A fortunate coincidence carried matters further shortly after my accounts of Butley were published in 1934. I had received assistance on several points connected with the history of the Priory from Dr. R. W. Hunt, then Senior Scholar of Christ Church, and afterwards Lecturer at Liverpool University,3 and he was familiar with the problem of the missing Chronicle. On 28 April, 1935, Dr. Hunt wrote to me that Mr. F. J. Routledge, his colleague in the History Department at Liverpool, had spoken to him of a sixteenth century monastic chronicle, apparently of Snape Priory, which he had transcribed from Bodleian MS. Tanner xc and on which he had done some work with a view to publication, at the suggestion of Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, shortly before the outbreak of war in 1914. Correspondence with Mr. Routledge made it certain that his transcript was indeed that of part of the missing Butley Chronicle and he generously offered to hand it over to me together with letters from Mr. H. A. L. Fisher which showed that, although he had not identified its 1. Archaeological Journal, xc (1934), pp. 177-281. Oxford Essays in Medieval History presented to H. E. Salter (1934), pp. 190-206. 2. For the facts known about the Chronicle up to 1934 see Arch. Jour., xc. 203, n. 4. 3. Now Sub-Librarian and Keeper of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library.

x


source, he had been the first to appreciate its unusual interest. Its source indeed was far from obvious. The Bodleian text, itself an eighteenth century transcript, had been described by Hackman in his Catalogue of the Tanner Manuscripts, published in 1860, simply as " Copy of a chronicle of remarkable events from the year 1510 to 1535," and Fisher's suggestion that it came from Snape presumably arose from the fact that the first surviving entry relates to the election of a Prior of Snape in 1510. Only someone familiar with Butley and its personalities at this time could see where its true home must have been. The publication of the rediscovered Chronicle was rightly felt by Dr. Kendall to be a very desirable culmination to the work which he had sponsored on the history and archaeology of the Priory. Other commitments made it impossible for me to fall in with his kind suggestion that I should edit it myself and the search for a suitable editor was further delayed by the war. In 1948 however we were fortunate in finding that Professor A. G. Dickens, who had made a special study of the religious and social background to the English Reformation shared our view of the importance and interest of the Chronicle and was willing to edit it for Dr. Kendall. It was a very great pleasure to me that the preparation of this Bodleian text for publication should be in such competent hands for long familiarity with Butley and its problems had led me to appreciate and to share personally Dr. Kendall's desire to make available for historians and archaeologists all that is of interest in the story of the Priory which was his home. And this Chronicle most vividly brings to life, as few other documents of this age can do, the intimate doings and thoughts of the last representatives of medieval monasticism in this country. No one studying the background to the Reformation in England should ignore the fascinating picture of a dying civilization painted all unconsciously by this unknown Canon of Butley. Professor Dickens in his Introduction and Notes has drawn attention to all the features of general interest which the Chronicle displays. It may be permissible for me to refer here very briefly to a few points of the topography of the Priory and its buildings on which the Chronicle supplements the evidence derived from the excavations of 1931-3 (cf. plan, p. 90). It is well for the reader of such a chronique intime to have a mental picture of the buildings in which the scene is laid, the surroundings familiar to the Canon who wrote it. This is not easy to obtain from a visit to Butley at the present day, as for example it would in the case of Fountains or Tintern, for, apart from the magnificent Gatehouse built in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, the monastic buildings have almost entirely disappeared. The eye of faith viewing both the results of the excavation and the scraps of information provided by the Chronicler and other contemporary records is needed to set up again the fallen and dispersed masonry of " the late monastery of Butleigh." The great gatehouse stands on the north side of the walled precinct some two hundred yards away from the main block of the conventual buildings. Ruins of medieval date were still standing to the west of the Gatehouse in the eighteenth century : we now know that to the east also were buildings : " a

Foreword

xi

house and annexe to it called of old Warner's Lodge " stood here in 1524, when a Domus Ypymerantm, conjectured by Professor Dickens to be the Infirmary whose provision was ordered by the Bishop at the 1520 Visitation, was added to the group.1 If the identification is correct, the Infirmary was in an unusual position for it is more normally situated to the east or south-east of the main cloistral block. From the Gatehouse a way must have led past the Fish Ponds (probably the stagnant which supplied water for the cloaca in dormitorio which was " in need of reformation *' in 1526)2, to the west end of the Priory Church and beyond it to the porticulam vocatam Ly Seler gate3 by which no doubt access was obtained through the Cellarer's buildings to the west walk of the Cloister. At the south-west corner probably stood the new kitchen with its three hearths and two boilers, its stone walls and wooden roof covered with lead, whose building is recorded by the chronicler in 1518.4 Of the cloister itself we hear nothing in the Chronicle, but from the excavations we know that its original thirteenth century arcade of paired Purbeck marble columns had by now been replaced by glazable windows providing greater shelter and comfort in the daily life of the convent.5 North of the cloister stood the Priory Church, one of the largest in East Anglia. It was at least 235 feet in length, with an aisled nave of nine bays, perhaps still mainly thirteenth century in character, short transepts, and a choir at least five bays long flanked by enlarged aisles of fourteenth century date built out on both sides to the full width of the original transepts. The crossing probably carried a substantial central tower,6 heavy enough to cause alarm for the security of the two eastern piers beneath it, for it had been found necessary to block the westernmost arch of the south choir arcade and to fill nearly half the northern arch of the crossing with a substantial buttress. The church, like the chapter house, the refectory and the kitchen, was entirely roofed in lead whose disrepair became a constant source of complaint at this period : in 1526 we are told that " it rains in various places in the church " and that the rood beam was rotted by damp. This was no doubt the cause of the dramatic collapse of the Crux Magna cum Crucifixo, reported by our Chronicler on 26 January, 1524/5. After this incident the cross itself had to be entirely renewed although the Image of the Crucified had lost only its right thumb and its Crown of Thorns in the crash.7 Of the internal arrangement and fittings of the Church we hear little. A new pair of organs was provided for the Lady Chapel in 1512, and the same year saw also the complete overhaul and re-tuning of the existing magna Organa et Mediocra Organa, but where these stood we are not told.8 In 1534 the Mediocra Organa were replaced by a new pair of organs with five stops placed in the choir.9 The position of the various chapels in the church is not 1. 2. 6. of early 7.

Infra, p. 47. 3. Infra, p. 26. 5. Arch. Jour., xc. 251-2. Infra, p. 10. 4. Infra, p. 35. The glazing of two windows maioris forme in the campanile monasterii is mentioned in a document probably fifteenth century date belonging to the Priory. See East Anglian, xi (May 1905), p. 73. Infra, p. 47. 8. Infra, p. 28. 9. Infra, p. 66.

xii


certainly known, but our chronicle provides evidence that the north choir aisle or some part of it was dedicated to St. Anne, for the burial of Prior Augustine Rivers in 1528 took place " on the south side of the chapel of St. Anne before the High Altar."1 In 1530 we learn that the statues of SS. Peter and Paul in the chapel of those saints were " splendidly painted," as a result of a benefaction from an otherwise unrecorded Canon.2 Little is said in the Chronicle about the other buildings round the cloister. They occupied the normal positions, the Chapter House and Dormitory with its undercroft on the east, and the Refectory on the south. But we now know that there were gardens to the east of the Chapter House and also north of the Church ; one of the latter having direct access to the Church was appropriated in 1527 to the use of Canon Nicholas Oxburgh,3 either personally, or perhaps more probably in his capacity as Sacrist or Succentor, offices which he is known to have held at that time. The Prior too had a garden described in 1527 as " beyond Baret's Chambers which formerly belonged to the priors of our monastery."4 The site of this is unknown for owing to the presence of farm buildings it was not possible to excavate in the positions where one would expect to find the Prior's Lodging to the south or south-west of the cloistral block. But the notice is of interest because it shows that at Butley, as at so many other monastic houses at this date, the accommodation formerly deemed adequate for the Prior had been superseded by more ample quarters of recent construction. It is significant that at Butley the Prior's old chambers, hitherto probably the most comfortable in the house, had come to be occupied not by an office holder or other senior among the canons, but by Henry Baret, a substantial layman described as " servant to the Prior." This situation adds point to the complaint made at the 1532 Visitation that the Prior's servants despise the Canons. At Butley, as elsewhere, the buildings were in poor repair. Even the Prior's rooms shared in the structural dilapidation of the house : we learn that in February 1531 the roof of " the great Priour's Chamber " collapsed without any force of wind or weather, being " totally broken both in timbers and tiles," so that an entirely new roof had to be built for it by Whitsun the same year.5 Nothing could better illustrate the lack of any effective provision for the regular survey and maintenance of the fabric. The bill for repairs must indeed have been heavy that year for in addition to the new roof of the Prior's Chamber, the roof of half the pistrina was burnt out in August" carelessly and unfortunately by the negligence of the servants "6 and required replacement with new timbers and tiles, a work completed on 20 October. These incidents are of interest as showing that if neglect and incompetence contributed to the decay of Butley's fabric there seems to have been no delay or difficulty in the execution of major structural repairs. i. Infra, p. 55 2. Infra, p. 59. 3- Infra, p. 52. 4. Infra, p. 52. For Baret's significance see p. 28 infra, and his will, p. 77. 5. Infra, p. 59. 6. Ibid.

Foreword

xiii

Such are a few of the more interesting pieces of information with which the Chronicle supplements the evidence provided by excavation for the buildings of the Priory and its material condition in the last years of its active life. The impression they leave matches that left by the chronicler of the fortunes and conduct of the house in this period as a whole. It is a picture of old age, of a body once vigorous whose strength is ebbing past renewal, failing more rapidly in some parts than in others so that dangerous stresses are set up which lead to alarming and unexpected crashes. But along with failure and friction and increasing feebleness there are glimpses of those endearing qualities that are also the prerogative of old age, a quiet delight in traditional routine, a childlike acceptance of simple and unworldly pleasures, and a sensible reluctance to struggle against inevitable fate. Within two or three years of the last entry in our Chronicle all the ideals and achievements of English monasticism in its great days might seem to have become, along with Butley's buildings and its traditional life, as though they had never been. But for three and a half centuries—a time as long as that which separates us now from the reign of Queen Elizabeth—the Priory had played a conspicuous part in the social life of East Anglia. It was a substantial landlord and the centre of a busy agricultural estate ; a patron of numerous churches, many of them served directly by the canons ; a hostelry for travellers and pensioners ; a dispenser of hospitality to the rich and charity to the poor ; an inspiring group of noble buildings ; a home of art and music, of employment and good counsel to the neighbouring laity, of children " kept of almes to lernyng," and above all a place of worship, of continuing witness to the glory of God. On these and other aspects of monastic life in its last stages, the Butley Chronicle throws a light all the more illuminating for its soft, mellow and homely quality. It reveals a scene of English history too little understood, but one worthy a wise man's understanding.

Editors Preface

T

HE register or chronicle of Butley Priory had been lost to view when, in 1931-33, Mr. J. N. L. Myres excavated the site of the house and joined to his archaeological conclusions an admirable short history of Butley from its foundation by Ranulph Glanvil in 1171 to its dissolution in 1538.1 Quite recently the principal manuscript-source of the register (Bodl. MS. Tanner xc, fos. 24-67) was re-identified and Mr. Myres, now Bodley's Librarian, suggested to me the desirability of editing the text. In undertaking the task, I have become deeply indebted not only to Mr. Myres' printed work, but also for his personal assistance and most valuable suggestions over a a long period. My thanks are also due to Miss Redstone for advice on certain problems of Suffolk history and to Mr. W. A. Pantin from whose ample learning I derived several points of detail. To the late Dr. M. J. Kendall I owe very special gratitude, since without his constant inspiration, advice and tangible support the present edition could not have been published. Dr. Kendall saw much of the work in rough proof, yet it causes me profound regret to reflect that, had I finished my task a few days earlier, I should have had the privilege of placing the completed edition in his hands.

I. Arch. Jour., xc. 177-281.


Principal Abbreviations Arch. Jour. Chran. Calais D. N. B. Hall .

.

.

L. & P. Le Neve N.V.-

-

-

Polydore Vergil Stow Valor Eccles. V. C.H. Visit. Suffolk Wilkins -

-

-

Archaeological Journal. The Chronicle of Calais (Camden Soc., xxxv). Dictionary of National Biography. Edw. Hall, The Triumphant Reigne of Kyng Henry the VIII, ed. Whibley. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy. Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich (Camden Soc., new series, xliii). Anglica Historia, ed. D. Hay (Camden Third Series, Ixxiv). Annals (edn. 1615). Valor Ecclesiasticus, ed. Caley and Hunter. Victoria County History. Visitations of Suffolk, ed. W. C. Metcalfe. Concilia Magnae Britanniae.


PART ONE

Introduction I. THE

SOURCES.

HESE records of Butley Priory should be read against the background JL of a landscape best depicted by the realistic pen of Crabbe in a day when its solitudes had been little tamed by the hand of man : the landscape of East Suffolk with its reedy estuaries and shingle banks, its gorsecovered wastes and primeval woodland, its fishing boats and decoys, its dingy yet curiously attractive coastal townships, its countless wildfowl drifting across the incessant wind. On a remote peninsula between the Butley River and the Deben, set amid the sandy heaths between the coastal marshes and the glades of Staverton Forest, Butley saw little of the more dramatic vicissitudes of medieval times and contributed negligibly to the development of English cultural life. A priory so well-endowed has inevitably left many scattered evidences regarding its benefactors, lands, appropriations, lawsuits, privileges, elections, relations with kings, popes and general chapters. Yet it could boast no significant chronicle or literary traditions ; it left relatively few documentary evidences of its own creation.1 The great gatehouse with its magnificent armorial frieze—one of the noblest monuments of English monasticism—forms its single impressive legacy. We are nevertheless enabled to reconstruct a quite exceptionally intimate picture of the last three decades of religious life at Butley. To this end contribute several episcopal visitations, a number of wills and letters, a full entry in the Valor Ecclesiasticus and a dissolution-list of the household ; finally, but far from least significantly, the unusual and hitherto unpublished document which we print below. Our text must unfortunately be taken from a mere copy of the original Butley manuscript. Concerning the history of this original, we know a number of facts. It belonged in 1712 to the herald and antiquary Peter le Neve, who then transcribed from it some portions relating to the second and third Dukes of Norfolk.2 In 1739 Thomas Martin printed a passage on the funeral of the second Duke which differs in details from our surviving copy and was hence probably taken from the original.3 Martin describes his source as ' the register of Butley Abbey, late in the hands of Peter le Neve, now of Mr. Astle '— i.e., Thomas Astle (1735 - 1803) the famous collector and paleographer, who wrote that important early treatise The Origin and Progress of Writing* The 1744 edition of Tanner's Notitia Monastica? substantially written many years 1. For minor interesting exceptions cf. Arch. Jour., xc. 177 n. I ; Tanner, Notitia Monastica (edn. 1744), p. 517. Suckling, Hist. Suffolk, ii, 305-6 prints an inquisition dated 21 Henry III said to be ' from the Chartulary of Butley, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.' 2. Arch. Jour., xc. 203, 220-221. 3. Cf. infra, p. 43. 4. Cf. D.N.B. on Thomas Astle and on John Ives, mentioned infra. 5. p. 51?-. .Nasmith's edn. of 1787 adds ' Registrum penes Thomam Astle arm.', but correctly proceeds

2


earlier, does not observe this new ownership, but it provides our best eyewitnessdescription of the manuscript : ' Chronicon sive cartularium prioratus de Buttele, quod incipit tempore Augustini Rivers prioris, scil. anno 1509 et desinit anno 1536 ms. pap. in folio contin. f. 72 penes V. cl. Petrum le Neve Norroy.' From Astle's collection the manuscript thence proceeded to the hands of that shortlived but wellknown antiquary John Ives (1751-76), Suffolk Herald extraordinary, who possessed many important items once belonging to le Neve, Martin and Blomefield. In March 1777 the Ives collection was sold at Yarmouth and in the sale-catalogue1' Register of Butley Abbey, Suffolk ' duly appears among the manuscripts in folio. The British Museum copy annotates the buyer's name as ' Jennings,' but widespread enquiry has yielded no later evidences whatsoever. The possibility of the reappearance of this original manuscript seems too remote to justify indefinite delay in the publication of a copy, even though this latter, as we shall observe, is manifestly incomplete. The copy from which our present text almost wholly derives is in Bodleian MS. Tanner xc, fos. 24-67, a transcript in a neat clerkly hand presumably made on Tanner's orders from the original in the possession of his friend le Neve. Though unaccompanied by any descriptive notes, it may be approximately dated, since the transcriber adds a note referring to the 1695 edition of Keeble's Statutes,2 while in 1719 Browne Willis3 quotes from Tanner's collections a notice concerning the burial of Prior Rivers in the chapel of St. Anne, a notice almost certainly taken from fo. 50b of our Tanner manuscript. These terminal dates support the likelihood that the latter was written soon after 1712, when le Neve was himself copying the original Butley manuscript. By no extension of indulgence may the transcript be pronounced scholarly : it shows all too many palpable misspellings and incorrect expansions. Tanner began, but did not nearly complete, its emendation ; his very few corrections appear only at the beginning and towards the end.4 The transcriber not infrequently omits words and phrases, leaving a line of dots to allow of their ultimate insertion by the corrector. Nevertheless the general sense of the original cannot often be mistaken and the historical value of the whole is not seriously impaired by these blemishes of detail. Much more significantly, our Tanner transcript must certainly be regarded as a selective and incomplete version of the Butley book. A brief enumeration of the reasons for this belief will clarify the nature of both manuscripts ; it will also serve to reconstruct certain features of the lost original. (1) Tanner's clerkly transcriber has noted in his left margin the foliation of the original, running from fo. 4 to fo. 70. Yet his own version is contained in only 14 fos., or 28 pages, of the Tanner MS., and these, though closely written, are unlikely to hold all the material in the 67 fos. of the original. 1. A Catalogue of the Entire and Valuable Library of John Ives Junior (i777). P- >8the register of Mettyngham Abbey [sic], another apparently vanished manuscript. 2. Infra, p. 62. 3. Hist, of Abbies, ii. 222. 4. Fos 24, 37b, 38.

On p. 19 occurs also

The Register of Butley Pnory

3

(2) Of these 67 original fos., 25l are not represented at all by marginal figures, and in most cases the amounts of text actually confirm the supposition that the transcriber has omitted the contents of these unrecorded fos. All these last are unlikely to have been mere blanks in the original, which dates from a period when paper was still scarce and valuable. (3) The amounts of text ascribed to each recorded fo. of the original are very uneven. Huge entries appear for some, while for others only four or five lines are given.2 If we supposed the copy to be complete, we should again need to envisage early sixteenth-century monastic scribes wasting paper with pointless prodigality. (4) As already observed, MS. Tanner xc was not quite the only copy made from the original. The Howard Papers, once at Norfolk House and now at Arundel, contain at least four short extracts taken by le Neve, and of these four passages two are missing from MS. Tanner xc.3 (5) Blomefield, the topographical historian of Norfolk who made such extensive use of the collections of both Tanner and le Neve, appears also to have seen the original. In his section on West Somerton, where Butley held both manor and rectory, Blomefield writes, ' In 1512 the rectory was leased by the prior to William Lacock, canon regular of Bromere in Wiltshire for 7 years, paying 8 1. per arm. and he was to bear all charges, synodals and procurations &c., and to serve the cure 4 ; there are in the register of Butley, late Peter le Nevis [sic], Esq., many evidences relating to this priory, and agreements between them, and the rectors of Winterton, and the prior of Norwich about tithes.'5 Again, none of this range of documents occurs in MS. Tanner xc. (6) Tanner in his Notitia Monastica (edn. 1764)6 relates how the small house of Snape was given to Butley by Henry VII, and how the ' prior and his canons resigned up and quitted all claim and title to the same 21 Feb. 1509.' In support he gives the reference ' Chronicon prioratus de Butley ms penes Pet. le Neve arm. f. 4.' Now fo. 4 is the first marginal reference given by MS. Tanner xc ; it does in fact include a mention of Snape, but not in connection with this transaction ; the actual quitclaim very possibly occurred in the original, the first three fos. of which, obviously covering the year 1509, are completely unrepresented in the Tanner MS. Similarly our MS. appears to omit passages at the end of the original; it concludes with events in 1. This figure takes no account of the versos. No versos are mentioned in the marginal references, except between fo. 48b and fo. 650. It is clearly possible that some versos were blank in the earlier portion, but the entries under some marginal references (e.g. under fos. 12, 37, 45, 46) seem so extensive as to prove that the versos of those fos. were in fact used. Though versos are not given after 6sb, the amounts under fos. 66, 67, 68 indicate the use of their versos. 2. E.g. fos. 13, 15, 16, 18, 19. 3. Cf. infra, pp. 35, 57. Miss Redstone fortunately transcribed three of these before their removal to Arundel, where they are likely to be inaccessible for some considerable period. The fourth, a lease of Staverton Park to Butley by the second Duke of Norfolk (infra, p. 35), remains untranscribed and would have been added to our text were it available. It is conceivable that other fragments may exist in the Howard Papers, but le Neve's extracts appear to have been confined to affairs of the family. 4. A later lease of the same is actually summarised in our present version. Cf. infra, p. 10 5. Blomefield, Norfolk, xi. 190. 6. P. 516.

4


1535, whereas, according to Tanner's Notitia Monastica, the original ended in 1536.1 (7) Certain other omissions are revealed by internal evidence in MS. Tanner xc itself. The Butley writer tells us, for example, how in 1530 one of his colleagues Henry Bassingbourne became Prior of Woodbridge. He then continues ' Quaere copiam dimissionis nostrse antea in hoc registro Anno Domini 1524, Anno Regni Regis Henrici Octavi 16°.'2 This dimission does not, however occur in our present text. Again, we are similarly invited to look for a copy of the citation for the election of Thomas Manning as Prior of Butley * in fine istius quarterii, viz. folio sequenti,'3 but our copyist is found also to have omitted this document. Elsewhere we are told that the marriage of Mary Tudor to Louis XII has been mentioned previously,4 which is no longer the case, while on a fourth occasion the monastic author promises further information concerning certain fees payable to Norwich diocesan officials,5 but is not in fact permitted by the copyist to give it. These known omissions render it possible to gauge the extent to which the copy has diverged from the original. In so doing we should recall that the Butley scribe has described his work as ' registrum,'6 a term none too precise, yet in monastic usage providing a clue of importance. A monastic register was essentially the letter-book of an abbot or prior,7 but it often included numerous chronicle-passages, both local and national in character. Indeed, chronicle, register and even cartulary constitute no very clearly defined categories. The ' registrum ' of the famous Abbot Whethamstede8 provides a useful chronicle of its period ; conversely the value of earlier annalists like those of Burton and Dunstable lies less in their original passages than in their rich assortment of contemporary documents.9 Our Butley writer very probably attached more importance to his documents than to those notices of national and local events which in their perfunctory brevity often recall the habits of the mid-Tudor diarist rather than the more sustained manner of his monastic predecessors. In contrast, Tanner's copyist certainly showed most interest in the chronicle-aspect of the document : it will be observed that, of his numerous known omissions, all save two seem to be of Butley domestic documents. We may indeed count ourselves fortunate that he retained several interesting and (with one exception) hitherto unprinted documents ; yet his process of selection has doubtless left us with a somewhat unbalanced version, wherein chronicle or diary predominates unduly over register proper. All things considered, a fairly clear picture of the original Butley document appears behind the somewhat opaque glass of the Tanner manuscript. I. 3. 45. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Supra, p 2. 2. Infra, p. 58. Infra, p. 57 ; quarterii here presumably for quatemi: quire, gathering. Infra, p. 32. Infra, p. 39. Infra, p. 58. Chapters of the English Black Monks, ed. Pantin (Camden Soc., 3rd ser.), i, p. xv, and Mr. Pantin's essay in Historical Essays in Honour of James Tail, pp. 201 seqq. Rolls Series (1872-3). M. D. Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, p. 95.

The Register of Butley Priory

5

In our present volume we print the whole text of MS. Tanner xc with but one exception—that of a bull granted by Clement VII to Wolsey in 1524, a document thrice previously printed from better sources.1 In addition, where their true places are known, the scraps gleaned elsewhere have been inserted in brackets or, where details are imprecise, mentioned in footnotes. Punctuation has been revised where necessary, but original spelling and capital letters retained. Contractions have been expanded, except those of proper names and of a few words where the author's intention eludes virtual certainty. That the original Latin often deserved the severest epithets levelled by contemporary humanists against monks, few readers will doubt. When in addition to this factor the shortcomings of Tanner's copyist are considered, the full difficulty of producing a * convincing ' text will be appreciated. Some of its more glaring oddities of grammar and spelling are indicated by the interpolation [sic] or by a special note. Apart from these, however, a good many other strange irregularities occur, and, though the present editor confesses himself far from infallible, he trusts that the startled yet charitable reader will not accuse him of inaccurate readings without first consulting the manuscript itself. II. AUTHORSHIP.

K

NOWING so much of the personalities at Butley, we naturally enquire whether the document is a purely communal product, or whether it springs largely or wholly from personal authorship. The problem does not admit of easy or certain conclusions ; the editor has ' convinced' himself by two or three neat and plausible theories, only to discard or modify each of them upon further consideration. In the interests of clarity we may enumerate the factors as follows : (1) The present writer is aware of no regulation concerning responsibility for the compilation of registers in houses of Augustinian canons. Wolsey's elaborate constitutions for the order2 do not mention the point. General monastic evidence might suggest a prior's chaplain or secretary acting as a scribe,3 more or less closely controlled by the prior himself. (2) An external piece of evidence appears in the household list of 1538, where the understeward of the lands, William Royston, is also described as 'understuard and keper of the regestre.'4 There is no evidence, however, that this obscure layman kept the register or indeed performed any functions at Butley during the actual period of our text. Even in 1538 he may have been acting as a custodian or as a mere scribe who copied in business documents during the dissolution-process, a period when the monastic personnel would in all likelihood be increasingly excluded from such activities. Moreover, we should experience surprise to find a layman of the understeward class keeping a chronicle of current events in Latin—even in bad Latin—during the period 1510 - 1536. On the other hand, it seems not inconceivable that literate I 2.

Infra, p. 46. Wilkins, iii. 683-8.

3. Cf. references p. 4, n. 7. 4. Infra, Appendix I.

6


laymen may have copied out formal documents, or even taken down the chronicle-passages at the dictation of the prior or some other ecclesiastic. Laymen of superior standing described as * yeomen waiter' or * servant to Master Pryor' appear to have been present throughout our period at Butley. From his will, and other sources, we know much concerning one of them Henry Baret, who was a benefactor of the house and died in 1517.1 The chronicle-writer appears at least to have been very favourably disposed toward Baret, whose benefactions he twice records alongside those of Prior Rivers.2 Nevertheless, the obvious clerical mannerisms and the equally obvious continuity across the date 1517 strongly militate against the supposition that Baret, or his lay associates and successors, were prime authors of the chronicle. (3) So far as our present text is concerned, complete anonymity is maintained except in the case of one interpolated document—the curious English acquittance directed both to the soul and to the executors of the late King Henry VII, whose relations with the priory had been of an extremely equivocal character.3 This document is headed ' Scriptum per manus Domini Willelmi Woodbrigge &c.'—the name of the canon who was subprior from at least 1504 to 1532 and whom we shall encounter very frequently in visitationrecords and elsewhere. (4) So far as stylistic evidence goes, the chronicle shows, at least until the date 1532, very marked homogeneity and a series of fairly distinct mannerisms, which, though not difficult to imitate, strongly suggest a single authorship. In 1532-3 an unwonted confusion in the order of events occurs4; we suspect lapse and resumption. Though the Latin undergoes hereabouts no very dramatic transformation, the stylistic mannerisms seem henceforth less marked, while the mode of presentation certainly becomes more slipshod. Precise dates become fewer and events are now often dated merely by the year : one brief entry is even made in English. While it is true that some of these features may spring from the copyist's mistakes and omissions—the latter are clearly considerable hereabouts—the probability remains that these concluding passages, amounting to a mere seventh of the whole, were not written by the principal author responsible for the period 1510 - 1532. (5) If independent lay contributions are likely to have been negligible and if a single authorship of the chronicle passages for 1510 - 1532 appears probable, our choice of the likely author narrows down to seven of the canons, since we know beyond all question the names, and at least the approximate dates, of every canon of Butley in our period.5 Of these seven, four are weak candidates : they all first appear in 1514 and were even then very junior members of the house and unlikely to be register-keepers except, conceivably, 1. Arch. Jour., xc. 219-20. 2. Infra, p. 28. 3. Cf. infra, p. 15. 4. Infra, pp. 59-61. The burning of Bilney (Aug. 1531), ascribed to fo. 59 of the original, is soon followed by the consecration of Gardiner (Dec. 1531). After two brief entries probably for Oct. 1532 and Feb. 1533, the following occur in immediate succession : (i) Death of the Duchess of Suffolk (23 .Tune 1533), ascribed to fo. 63. (2) Jfourney of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn to Calais (Oct. 1532). (3) Humiliation of Bishop Nix (Feb. 1534), ascribed to fo. 646. (4) Death of the Earl of Lincoln (March 1534). 5. Arch. Jour., xc. 223-5.


7

as mere secretaries to the prior or some senior. Two others, Chippenham and Westerfield, were somewhat senior, but there appears no reason to connect them with the register.1 Beyond these improbables, we are left with William Woodbridge, alias Gymbold, the one canon certainly present during the whole period 1510 - 1532, the one possible candidate of known literary interests2 and from the outset a figure of dignity and importance who narrowly missed being made prior in 1509. The candidature of Woodbridge is not very gravely prejudiced by the fact that the text refers to him in the third person3; it is distinctly strengthened by the likelihood that he died not long after June 1532, the date of his last appearance in our voluminous records and the date of our hypothetical change of authorship. Altogether the commonsense supposition would point to Woodbridge as our main chronicler, yet undue dogmatism would remain dangerous—one has seen too many of these commonsense theories suddenly demolished by the emergence of fuller evidence! (6) The register has no known immediate predecessor and in its original completeness it began in 1509, the year of the advent of Prior Rivers, a good administrator who restored the fortunes of the house. This may indicate simply that a new volume was commenced, or subsequently bound up, as from the advent of Rivers ; it may mean that Rivers actually revived, or initiated, the keeping of a systematic register at Butley. We stand however upon firmer ground when we observe that the chronicler is careful to record the good works of Rivers4 and that he seems not infrequently to observe events from the viewpoint of a prior rather than from that of a canon.5 Rivers, it is true, died in 1528, a point at which no perceptible break in continuity occurs. Yet if he did not actually compose the chronicle, he must in some measure have controlled the keeping of the book as a whole—it was, after all, an official record of his house. In short, the claims of Woodbridge to be chief chronicler in no way discount the possibility that he compiled—and perhaps commenced— the book under the personal supervision of the prior. The further fabrication of theories might prove unprofitable, since the question of personal authorship, however amusing the detective-problems it poses, remains one of subsidiary interest to the historian. Whoever the author or authors, he or they may certainly claim to have been among the very last monastic annalists of England.6 1. Denis Rychemount was only subdeacon and Nicholas Oxburgh ' professus ' in 1514—the latter only deacon by 1520. Robert Chippenham was born c. 1486 (N.V.. p. 287) and could have been a priest by 1510 ; Reginald Westerfield may have been a priest in 1514 and was certainly ' parish priest ' at Gedgrave in 1518 ; James Denyngton alias Hyllington and Thomas Mannyng were certainly junior canons in 1514, though no precise reliance is to be placed on the order of the names in N.V. 2. Cf. infra, p. 18. 3. E.g. infra, p. 354. Infra, pp. 28, 35 5. Cf. not only the emphasis on personal benefactions, but the passage (p. 32) taking sides with the rascally Prior Lowthe of Walsingham against his canons. 6. A minor companion is the very brief English chronicle (probably translated from a Latin original) written by a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, and covering the years 1532-7 (Narratives of the Reformation, Camden Soc.. Ixxyii. 279-86). This is likewise terse and diaristic, useful principally for local events. Again, it exists in a transcript with blanks due to the transcriber's ignorance. On the other hand it does not appear part of a register and includes no documents. Two mid-fifteenth century Christ Church, Canterbury, chronicles also recall our Butley document: those of John Stone (ed. Searle, Cambridge Antiq. Soc., 1902) and William Glastonbury (Archaeologia Cantiana, xxxvii, 121 seqq.).

8

Late Monasticism and the Reformation III.

THE DISCIPLINARY AND ECONOMIC BACKGROUND.

t I ^HE most valuable background-material to our chronicle lies in the X detailed record of the four visitations1 of Butley made during its period by Bishop Nix of Norwich or his commissaries. If we are willing to interpret with great caution, we may here learn much concerning the psychological, disciplinary and personal state of this group of religious persons. Even the pettier detail should not be over-hastily dismissed, for to do so would be to overlook a predominant characteristic of late monasticism, a certain small-mindedness. In July 1514 Butley might have served as model to the many less exemplary East Anglian houses. Augustine Rivers, whom Nix had five years previously made Prior,2 ruled over a well-ordered and relatively harmonious community. He himself testifies quod omnia fiunt laudabiliter juxta facilitates domus. The priory, however, owes Sir William Capell3 £70 ' of the old debt' and £20 to the Bishop himself. The buildings and manors are in a bad state of repair. William Woodbridge, subprior, reports that the three daily masses cum nota are duly celebrated, that divine service is laudably observed both by day and night, that the brothers are obedient and continent. John Thetford, B.C.L., perhaps the most distinguished Butley canon of our period,4 says that his knowledge of the house is limited because of his absence at the university, but that so far as he knows the brothers are of good conversation. Thetford also reports that brother Thomas Orford is a good grammarian and devoted to letters ; his friends want to exhibit him at the university at their own expenses. Richard Wilson, cellarer, testifies that the Prior is industriosus in spiritualibus et temporalibus and that everything is well done so far as the resources of the house allow. The Prior is nevertheless greatly burdened by the ruin of buildings, houses, granges and manors ; he has spent, as Wilson believes, 100 marks on repairs since his promotion. Canon John Norwich adds that their books are falling into ruin in praejudicium divini cultus. He confirms that Thomas Orford is apt for study, et non habent confratres doctos. The other canons mostly report omnia bene and only two cases of disharmony emerge. James Hyllyngdon says that the subprior and other seniors are negligent in attending divine service—a charge unsupported by anyone else. Thomas Sudbourne, in later years to become last Prior of Butley, agent of Thomas Cromwell and Bishop of Ipswich, testifies on this occasion that Canon Reginald Westerfield gave dishonest words to his colleagues and reviled them. Brian Wynkfield, exorcist, confirms quod Westerfeyld vilipendit confratres 1. N.V., pp. 131, 177, 216, 285. The priory was also visited in 1494 (ibid., p. 53). Unless otherwise stated, all the subsequent information on visitations will be found under these references. 2. Despite the wish of the canons to elect William Woodbridge (Arch. Jour., re. 202-3). 3. A significant creditor. Sir William Capel of Rayne Hall, Essex, ancestor of the Earls of Essex, was an eminent London merchant knighted at Henry VII's coronation, but later a victim of Empson and Dudley. At one entertainment given to the King he cast into the fire several bonds the King owed him ; at another he drank a dissolved pearl of great value to the King's health ; d. 6 Sept. 1515 (Morant, Hist. Essex, ii. 401). 4. Cf. infra, pp. 17, 18.


9

juniores et vocat eos horesons, the last, incidentally, a mere routine item amid the rich variety of expletives recorded in Tudor cases of slander.1 The Bishop, not improbably pleased to find so little amiss—he had plumbed the abysses of Walsingham Priory a fortnight earlier2—issued two brief injunctions and dissolved the visitation. Reginald Westerfield he warned to abstain from opprobrious words in future. Again he licensed both Thetford and Orford to attend the university for the sake of study, pro eo quod habent exhibitionem alienam. Orford, it may here be observed, was no youthful enthusiast but already at least approaching middle age3 : his subsequent unfortunate experiences in the outer world will shortly attract our attention. One small piece of information gained not from these visitation records, but from our chronicle itself, should at this point be interpolated. The writer tells us that on 1 July, 1517, ' the reverend father Richard Nicke, Lord Bishop of Norwich, was here, when divers bills were handed to the same father by John Thetford, Orford and John Norwich, canons of this house, against the venerable father Augustine, prior of this place.'4 The events of this episcopal visit herald the less harmonious atmosphere apparent in the formal visitation of 30 July, 1520, a transaction conducted by John Underwood, Bishop of Chalcedon and suffragan of Norwich (1505-31), Dr. Nicholas Carre,5 chancellor of the diocese and other commissaries.6 On this occasion the Prior is able to exhibit accounts showing the reduction of the debt to a mere 40/-. The number of the canons has now, however, fallen to eleven and nearly all of them make complaints of some kind. John Norwich says they now have no scholar at the university, and that the Prior wants to retain £3 which he, Norwich, had borrowed from friends and placed in the Prior's custody. Seven of the canons allege that no infirmary is kept— an economy probably not uncommon in monasteries at this period.7 Four of them complain against the cellarer William Melford on account of the meagre helpings of food, quod parce ministratur confratribus in ferculis quotidianis culpa celarii. No scholar, say others, is being maintained at the university,8 silence is not preserved in the refectory, dormitory and cloister. In addition there are the usual reports concerning choirbooks in disintegration9 and buildings unrepaired : ecclesia est ruinosa et defective, in tectura et pluit in refectorio. 1.

A fine collection, complete with expletives in English, is in York Diocesan Registry, Cause Papers (R. VII. G.). N.V., pp. 113 seqq. He had been a canon of Butley at least since 1494 and was probably not among the junior canons at that date (ibid., p. 54). 4. Infra, p. 355. On these officials, cf. infra, pp. i , 39. 6. The Butley writer's tactful account (infra, p. 39) should be compared with the N.V. 7. Infirmary quarters appear to have been prepared in 1524 (infra,p. 47) ; in 1532 complaints arose regarding the lack of a doctor and special treatment, except at the expense of the patients themselves (N.V., p. 286). The household list of 1538 (infra, App. I) contains a lay ' Keper of the fermory.' 8. Thomas Orford is not counted, presumably because maintained by outsiders. 9. In 1526 it is said that Nihil allocator praecentori pro reformatione librorum. 2. 3.

10


At the next visitation, that of 26 June, 1526, the picture has not substantially changed. The nemesis of earlier overbuilding continues to haunt even a well-endowed house. Henry Bassingbourne, third prior, now testifies that ecclesia conventualis est ruinosa in tectura videlicet plumbo et pluit in diversis locis in ecclesia. John Bawdesey, sub-sacrist, amplifies these details, remarking that the rood beam in the church is rotted by the rain. Nicholas Oxburgh, sacrist, says that the water in stagno1 which used to run through and clean the drain (cloaca) in the dormitory is in need of reformation. Meanwhile the canons themselves continue to present a few mildly interesting features. The old names of 1514 and 1520 continue largely unaltered, but the total number has been augmented to fifteen. The novices profess dissatisfaction that their annual stipend of 20/- is not paid. Their seniors exhibit no violent disharmony. One of them dicit quod omnia bene et industriose fiunt et reformantur per priorem, though the malcontent John Norwich and another reiterate a complaint so common elsewhere—that the Prior does not display his annual accounts before the brethren. John Debenham, tormented by gout (podagra cruciatus} asks to be excused sometimes from matins during the winter. Thomas Orford is back again from the university, where, apparently, his experiences have not proved solely academic. Now vexatus morbo gallorum, he exhibits a capacity conceded him by the Lord Cardinal. And it will appear from the independent evidence of our chronicle that, armed with this capacity, Orford went off in August 1526 to the western parts of England to seek some service or benefice,' associating himself with a canon named Thomas Lambe, who had previously been in Melton prison for robbery and other enormous vices.' Our scribe completes the picture with a phrase full of meaning to students of late monasticism, Thomas Orford . . . . elegans persona.2 Such elegant persons are well represented elsewhere in the Norwich visitations. John Sail, third prior and precentor of Norwich Cathedral in 1526, had an exquisite purse and red silk bows on his shoes. He sometimes wore dancing pumps, sometimes top boots, and on one occasion did not blush to lift his frock, even before the Prior and the junior monks, in order to display his elegant footwear. Sail's example was not lost on the novices of his house, some of whom appeared in top boots and hats with satin rosettes and lappets.3 Amongst the several contemporary parallels may be cited that of the Abbot of St. Mary's York, and those canons of Warter Priory who were reproved by the Archbishop of York for wearing * silken girdles ornamented with gold and silver, and gold and silver rings.'4 Yet all too deeply as they were involved with laymen and with the tendency to private property, the vast majority of the religious did not, even at this late date, exhibit such crude inconsistencies, and there is no 1. This should mean an artificial tank used to flush the drain, or else the fishpond west of the Gatehouse. The cloaca in dormitorio was actually discovered in the excavations of 1930-33 (Arch. Jour., xc. 256 and supra, p. xi). 2. Infra, p. 49. 3. 4.

N.V., pp. 197-204. Cf. the visitation records printed from Archbishop Lee's Register (1534-5) in Yorks. Arched. Journal, xvi. 445, 447- For the Abbot's defence, cf. L. & P., ix. 158.

The Register ofButley Priory

11

evidence that those of Thomas Orford excited anything but repulsion on the part of his inelegant stay-at-home colleagues. On 23 December, 1528, Augustine Rivers died and was succeeded by the cellarer Thomas Sudbourne (alias Sudbury, alias Mannyng) in circumstances already well known and somewhat amplified by the chronicle. Thenceforward the new prior, like so many others in his office, was bowing to, even welcoming, the inevitable ; he ingratiated himself with Thomas Cromwell by a long series of ready compliances which eventually in 1536 procured his suffragan bishopric.1 Though an able man of business whose election was supported by the canons, he failed to prevent that final lowering of morale at Butley which appears distinctly in the visitation of 1532 and which cannot be ascribed simply and solely to that prevalent sense of impending doom so clearly reflected in our chronicle. This last visitation was conducted on 21 June, 1532, when, after a sermon by the Abbot of Wymondham on the text Exite de medio Babilonis vos qui fertis, &c.2 the laity were excluded and Bishop Nix, now aged and almost blind, called before him the prior and canons. Subprior William Woodbridge made the last of his many testimonies that all was well, so far as he knew, and that the new prior was politicus et circumspectus. There followed, however, a flood of grievances. John Bawdesey, precentor and sacrist, said that the prior monopolised all the offices and that no scholar was maintained at the university. John Norwich, as usual, amplified the charge against the prior ; the presbytery was out of repair, no doctor or surgeon was provided, a meaner helping of salt fish was forthcoming than aforetime accustomed. James Denyngton criticised most things from the food and drink to the coldness of the refectory, whence the brothers suffered from the gout et alias gelidas infirmitates. The subprior, he alleged, had abstracted certain pewter mugs bequeathed to the use of sick canons ; no accounts had been rendered for thirty years and the younger canons had been compelled to go on foot instead of on horseback to receive their orders. Other canons deplored the lack of a teacher for the novices, the bad food and dirty service thereof, the gluttony of a young servingman who ate up the vegetables, et absorbens ea nescitur quo laborat morbo. There is no suggestion of any widespread breakdown of discipline ; direct testimony is given that the canons were continuing to serve their local parishes.3 The general loss of morale finds illustration in the complaint of Canon Thomas Gipswiche that the brothers murmur against each other ; that detraction, diffamation and envy reign among them, and quasi nulla caritas. Yet typically enough, this pathetic phrase, echoed in a wider sense in our chronicle, comes from the canon guilty of perhaps the most serious offence committed at Butley during its last years. At this same visitation Gipswiche admits to forging letters which his younger colleague Thomas 1. Arch, Jour., xc. 208-210. We print below (Appendix II) a typical letter : its tone is, of course, in no way peculiar to Mannyng. 2. A loose rendering of Isaiah lii. 11 ; probably Jeremiah 1. 8 had also been cited. 3. They were still serving Butley, Boyton, Wantisden, Chillesford and Capel, but Gedgrave (mistakenly given here as ' Categrave ') was now being served by an Augustinian friar of Orford (N.V., p. z88).

•jo


Woodbridge used at Norwich to procure ordination to the priesthood. And rather oddly, in the long and otherwise sensible list of episcopal injunctions which follows, no mention of this matter occurs. Here our sketch of the visitations may end, though not, perhaps without a cautionary note. Any reader tolerably familiar with the many published monastic visitations of this period will recognise in Butley a house of higher than average disciplinary condition. He will not be misled by idealistic fables of monastic discipline at any period. He will allow for the severe foreshortening of perspective involved in scanning a highly confidential list of grievances and shortcomings spread over nearly twenty years. In almost all visitations, medieval ecclesiastics display a frankness concerning each other, a lack of esprit de corps^ which may surprise modern readers but should not lead them to assume that permanent and chronic disharmony disrupted the everyday life of the community. In short, these religious are involved in a test more searching than any to which their lay contemporaries and critics may now be subjected. Nevertheless, when all such necessary qualifications have been made, the weaknesses of late monasticism stand revealed nowhere more clearly than in these less sensational visitation-records, in the ill-success of decent individuals trying to operate a system which needed not merely organisational reform but a vast new influx of spiritual inspiration. Such general impressions seem on the whole confirmed by the more positive, if more fragmentary evidences of our chronicle itself. A background-sketch must obviously include some brief account of the economic basis of life at Butley ; it is proposed to treat this subject mainly under the successive headings of income and expenditure. The vast majority of Butley's manors and rectories lay concentrated quite nearby in the southern portion of East Suffolk ; beyond them lay a thin sprinkling of properties in West Suffolk and Norfolk.2 The temporal income was largely produced by the manors of Butley, Tangham, Wantisden,3 Gedgrave, Chillesford, Bawdsey,4 Boyton, Glemham Magna, Stratford,5 Debenham6 and Finborough in Suffolk ; and by West Somerton in Norfolk, the single large outlying island of territory. These manors, together with rents in some 25 other parishes,7 yielded in 1535 a net temporal income of £210. 7s. 7d. They were administered by bailiffs, some of whom acted for more than one manor. In respect of spiritual income Butley had been exceptionally well endowed. Some 28 appropriated churches and chapels 1.

Cf. M. D. Knowles, op. cit., pp. 83-4.

2. Except where otherwise stated, the succeeding economic particulars are gained from Valor Ecclesiasticus, iii. 418-422. On the descents of Butley manors in Suffolk, cf. Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, iv. 227-8 ; v. 119, 133, 138, 174, 187-8 ; vi. 175 ; vii. 135, 237, 241. 3.

Manor of Wantisden Hall (ibid., v. 187.).

4.

Manor of Bawdsey Antley (ibid., vii. 237).

5.

In Stratford St. Andrew (ibid., v. 174).

6.

Manor of Debenham Priory (ibid., vii. 135).

7.

Much the most lucrative was that of £3. ot. b\d. from Benhall, which the Valor places among the manors. Butley appears, however, to have held neither manor in this parish (ibid., v. 100 ttqq.)-


13

produced a net income of £108. 9s. T\d. Hence with a net general income of over £318 Butley stood second only to the magnificent foundation of Bury St. Edmunds (£1659) in the list of Suffolk religious houses, its nearest rivals being Sibton (£250), Campsey and Leiston (each £182).1 These figures from the Valor Ecclesiasticus may well, as so often happens in the course of that remarkable survey, represent an underestimate of actual income. We also possess the Ministers' Accounts for 32 Henry VIII,2 which give a total income from the Butley lands of £480. 65. IJd ; a figure comparable, however, not with the net income in the Valor > but with its gross income of £387. 65. 4d. The principal discrepancy between the two accounts lies in the revenue from Butley itself, which, including the rectory, shows a gross income of only £34. 05. 5\d. in the Valor, but £63. 155. 3d. in the Ministers' Accounts. In all probability such a divergence arises not from the sudden imposition of more businesslike management at the dissolution but rather from the difficulty of establishing a precise money-valuation for the proceeds of a manor which constituted a home-farm for the upkeep of the large monastic household itself. The working of this hub of the monastic economy is in fact further elucidated by a quite unusually detailed list of the household at the dissolution, which we print as our first appendix below. It includes, besides some purely domestic officials, an understeward, a surveyor of the lands and ' outryder,' a ' keper of the garners for corne,' a * keper of the swannys and pulleyn,' a slaughterman, two men described as ' shepreves and attendyng to the cattell and pasture,' two horse-keepers, five keepers of boats, ferry and weirs, a smith, two warreners, three bakers and brewers, two maltsters, a keeper of the gardens and ponds, six women for laundry and dairy, twelve servants in husbandry headed by a * bayliff of husbandry,' five carters, three shepherds, two * woodemakers,' a keeper of the swine, two wrights ' for makyng and mendyng of ploughes and cartes,' two men 'for makyng of candylles and kepying of the fysshe house.' To this list of 84 servants at Butley itself, the Valor3 adds the name of the manorial bailiff—Thomas Mannyng! Anticlerical observers would doubtless at this point charge the enterprising Prior with appropriating the fee of this official, but in that case they might also be compelled to charge him with acting as barber to the house, since in the household list the name of this latter technician also appears as Thomas Mannyng—presumably a second namesake of the Prior. Concerning the character of the home-farm, we should not pay too literal heed to William Petre, the commissioner who received the surrender in 1538 and wrote * the lead is worth £1,000, but there is no other riches but cattle.'4 Considerable quantities of grain were in fact stored, and presumably grown locally, since a letter of the same year mentions 80 quarters of wheat ' in the 1. Savine, English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution, p. 283. 2. Printed in Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vi. 381-2. 3. iii. 418. 4. L. & P., xiii (i) 393.

14


solers of the late monastery of Butleighe.'1 However disputable its monetary estimate, the Valor clearly confirms our picture of mixed farming at Butley :

£

* d

Fixed rents (redditus assisus)2 4 19 11| New rent 9 4 Rent in kind (redditus mobilis) 1 6 Farm3 of demesne land reserved in the hand of the prior, in horses, cattle and sheep of the said monastery pasturing there, and in husbandry for the maintenance of the same 20 0 0 Farm of lands in hands of tenants 1 14 8 Farm of Chillesford Mill 4 13 4 Perquisites of court (annual average) ... 18

£32 0 With spending, as distinct from getting, our records are far less concerned, but they yield enough miscellaneous information to allow of some general conclusions. The Valor, for example, is an income-tax book, yet the allowances it deducts in order to convert gross into net income throw light upon various types of expenditure. As to almsgiving, the Valor records as allowances only those alms which the canons were legally obliged to disburse through the provisions of founders and benefactors. Under this head at Butley appears the founder's provision whereby an annual sum of £8. 16s. 8d. —an average amount for a house of this wealth—was distributed in cash to the poor on seven feast days. Again by Glanvil's foundation, 40 /- per annum is paid out of the rents of the manor of Gedgrave dttobus honestis viris Deo ibidem servientibus, one of them a namesake of the late Prior Augustine Rivers, the other a certain William Cuckeson,4 not necessarily identicalwith the William Couckeson who receives 20 /- for serving in a more mundane role as bailiff of Finborough. In a somewhat different category stands a yearly payment of £10 from the proceeds of the manor of West Somerton for the diet and salaries of two canons of Butley celebrating there for the souls of Ranulph Glanvil and his parents.5 That any considerable alms were bestowed by the priory apart from those recorded seems unlikely, for the struggle to keep out of debt was always severe. Our chronicler describes in sympathetic terms the pitiful state of the local poor in the famine of 1527—* the Lord Jesus avert this for the better, since many of them died and were constrained unto death by cold, hunger and penury '6—yet 1. Ibid., 432. This was one of a number of local stocks awaiting export to Spain in a Spanish crayer, when it was seized by Cromwell's orders (6 March 1538). 2. For a discussion of this Valor terminology, cf. Savine, op. cit., pp. 157-160. 3. On the various meanings of ' firma ' cf. ibid., p. 143. Applied as here to demesne, it merely means ' exitus,' ' proficua ' ; below, it occurs in its normal sense of leasehold rent. 4. Two other persons are mentioned by the household list of 1538 (Appendix I) as ' beedemen beyng impotente,' while William Cookeson appears as ' surveyor and outryder." 5. This service had been stipulated by Henry IV when he released Butley Priory from its obligation to maintain the leper hospital at West Somerton (Col. Pat. Hen. IV, i. 114). 6. Infra, p. 53.


15

he gives no hint that his own or any other religious house took any charitable measures. On the other hand, building expenses, the weight of which we have already deduced from the visitations, are very frequently recorded by the chronicler. * The three lengthy visits of the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk, described in such fascinating detail, must again have occasioned expense far beyond the latter's gifts, many of which went to the canons as individuals. The recorded visits of the Duke of Norfolk and other well-attended notabilities are unlikely to complete the tale of this more or less enforced hospitality toward the rich and influential. In addition, Suffolk's capella clericorum cum numero ix puerorum cantantium was entirely maintained by the house in 1534-5, probably for as long as nine months.2 Such burdens were increased by accidental fires,3 by those disastrous floods which for centuries had intermittently devastated the Butley coastal manors,4 by the unparalleled exactions of Wolsey, by the expense of lawsuits5 and by that penultimate affliction of so many houses, an annuity to Thomas Cromwell, the actual grant of which is fully transcribed in our register.6 Nevertheless, thanks to the wealth of its endowments, to the relative smallness of its number of religious, and perhaps above all to the ability of its last two priors, Butley weathered the storm better than most houses. In 1509, when Prior Brommer committed suicide and Rivers succeeded him,7 the house was in debt to the Crown. It was still being proceeded against as a longstanding Crown-debtor in 1512,8 a circumstance perhaps connected with its acceptance of Snape from Henry VII. We have already seen how the new prior claimed to have wiped off £90 of debts between 1514 and 1520. In 1526 nothing is said of debts and, though in 1529 the prior ofButley appears among Cromwell's debtors,9 the sum cannot have been large. In 1532 the subprior said he knew nothing of debts to outsiders, while the prior produced a financial statement for the year ending on the feast of St. Michael, whereby it appeared that he recessisse a compoto in superplusagio xlix li. ii s. ix d., which ostensibly means that he held this unaccounted surplus.10 Generally speaking, when we reach the last decade of English monasticism so many extraneous factors are operating, that records, though plentiful, become untrustworthy guides for plotting the normal course of monastic landlordism. As late as 1529, it is true, Butley bought Staverton Park from the Duke of Norfolk,11 but the sum paid seems large (£240) ; knowing the character of the Duke, one would experience no surprise to learn that he used 1. Infra, pp. 28, 35, 47, 49, 58, 59. 2. Infra, p. 68. Suffolk also appointed John Crewe as one of the yeomen waiters. 3. Infra, p. 59. 4. Infra, p. 34. 5. For a Star Chamber case concerning lands in Bawdesey, brought by Thomas Smyth against Prior Manning in 22 Hen. viii, ct. Publ. Rec. Off., Lists and Indexes, xiii. 32, 195 ; D. K. Rep., xlix. 577. 6. Infra, p. 67. 7. For the references to these events cf. infra, p. 25. 8 L. & P., i (i). 1493 (p. 680). 9. Ibid., iv (3). 5330. 10. Superplusaeium can, however, mean a balance either in favour of, or against, the accountant. 11. Infra, p. 57.

16


unfair pressure to secure a transaction far more advantageous to himself than to the priory. Again, monks were not unnaturally concerned to lay up individual treasure in the secular world to come; they tend increasingly to make very long and favourable leases to outsiders from whom they might benefit after the dissolution. Of this practice a probable example occurs in our chronicle under the year 1535, when, the rectory of West Somerton was leased to Richard Lyon (the Priory's bailiff at West Somerton), for £8 per annum for as long as 99 years.l This we should compare with the previous lease of the rectory made in 1512 to William Lacock, a canon regular who was granted a lease of only seven years at the same rent, but on condition he bore all charges and served the cure.2 The detail we possess concerning this relatively fortunate house goes far to explain the financial difficulties of the monasteries, which were due to growing overheads rather than to mere inefficiency or to inadequate endowment for the actual purposes of the contemplative life. Even Butley stood in no position to act as universal benefactor to the less influential elements of the surrounding population ; there seems every likelihood that, as with most religious houses, its landlordism ran along similar lines to that of the local gentry who usually guided monastic policy.3 Enclosure and eviction, processes grossly exaggerated by a few contemporary, and many modern, partisan historians of the Tudor period, was certainly not very extensive during these earlier decades of the century. Yet one passage of the Butley register strongly implies, despite the obvious partiality of the writer, that the priory had enclosed land in Gedgrave claimed as common by the men of Orford. These latter, says our writer, proceeded riotously to make ' insurrections ' upon the priory's lands in Gedgrave,' presuming to have right of common and the Purlyng' in that parish, breaking down hedges and filling in ditches ' against justice.'4 And though it would be rash to assume on available evidence that Butley was positively unpopular, there are indications that poorer neighbouring houses commanded more affection. Mr. Myres perused 150 wills from the ten nearest parishes and ranging from 1444 to 1534—most of them in the later part of this period.5 Though Butley was a leading, often the leading, landowner in eight of these parishes, it was mentioned by testators less than the friars of Ipswich and Orford, perhaps less even than the smaller foundations of Leiston and Campsey Ashe. In Hollesley and Tunstall, the two parishes where its influence was smallest, not one of 55 testators made the least mention of Butley. Of the whole 150 wills, only 26 mention the priory or any of its canons. Of these 26, only 14 make actual bequests to the house or its members and several 1. Infra, p. 69 : Valor Eccles., iii. 421. The Richard Lyon who appears as a mere buttery-servant in the household list of 1538 (Appendix I) is obviously not identical. 2. Blomefield, Norfolk, xi. 190. 3. Sir Thomas Russhe, an influential local gentleman closely connected with the Suffolk household, was chief steward of Butley in 1535, receiving a fee of £4. He appears in our chronicle, infra, pp. 53, 54. For a general indication that monastic landlordism followed the normal lay tendencies cf. Leadam's work on the enclosure commissions of 1517-18 in The Domtsday of Enclosures and in Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. (2nd ser.), vi, vii, viii, xiv. On lay administrators of monasteries cf. Savine, op. cit., pp. 245 segq. 4. Infra, p. 50. 5. Cf. a tabulation of this evidence from wills in Arch. your. xc. 215-220.


17

of these are merely to individuals. Of the 14, no less than 10 are dated 1511 or earlier. So far as they go, these figures harmonise admirably with our picture of a heavily burdened but richly endowed house successfully paying off its debts under sound, unsentimental business management. Such general economic factors as the foregoing did not necessarily dominate the relations of individual religious with local society. Even in these later years the canons continue to occur fairly often as witnesses to local wills ; the system by which Augustinians served so many of their own churches must have given some of them an intimate standing with parishioners. So far as individuals are concerned, we must beware of generalisation—a sweeping charge of overremoteness from the lay world around is certainly not the first criticism of pre-Reformation monks which would leap to the mind! IV. THE MONASTIC MIND.

B

UTLEY formed at no stage a remarkable centre of cultural activity. In this last period its performance, though very modest, may well have exceeded that of any earlier comparable period. John Thetford, alias Colyn, is the single member of the house to have gained a paragraph in Cooper's Athenae Cantabrigienses. A canon as early as 1504, he studied for nearly twelve years at Cambridge, becoming Bachelor of Canon Law in 1512-13, prior of Thetford in 1519 and of Holy Trinity, Ipswich, in 1534.l Thomas Cooke, prior of Woodbridge from 1516 to 1530 and another Cambridge Bachelor of Canon Law, may have been for a short period of his early life a canon of Butley.2 Thomas Orford, who studied grammar for so many years without learned confratres, and then attended the university at the expense of friends, but with less fortunate results, was the only other Butley canon to follow Thetford to Cambridge. In the visitations of 1520, 1526 and 1532 the failure of the house to maintain a scholar at the university is reported ; in 1526 the visitor orders it to do so, apparently without effect. At Butley itself elementary education does not appear to have flourished. Back in 1494 we learn quod confratres non habent praeceptorem ad docendum eos grammaticam^ and the subject does not recur until in 1532 the Bishop enjoins quod provideatur de magistro qui instruat novitios et pueros in cantu videlicet Priksong et grammatical This last instruction was obeyed, since the household list of 15385 includes a * master of the chyldern,' Robert Fale, and seven ' childern kept of almes to lernyng,' three of them apparently the offspring of household servants. Apart from our register only two literary books of Butley provenance are known to exist. Both of these are printed books, but one of them contains some interesting manuscript-entries. It is a copy of the 1505 edition of Lyndwood's Provinciate6 and has been described as follows by Mr. Myres : ' The book has had various legal documents copied into it: constitutions, for 1. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, s.v. ; Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses, i. 6c. 2. Infra, p. 34. 5. Infra, Appendix I. 3. N.V., p. 54 6. Ipswich Public Library. 4. Ibid., p. 289.

1°


example, of Bishop Walter Southfield of Norwich (1243-57), which would be useful to an East Anglian monastery. Near the top of the last leaf but one (recto) occur the words Liber iste fuit ex providencia fratris Johannis Thetford, to which canonici de Butlee has been added in a slightly different ink. The wording suggests that the book was a gift from Thetford before 1519, when he left Butley. And that Butley was the recipient is clear, I think, from the two documents on the opposite page (last leaf but two verso). These are supplicationes to the Convocation of Canterbury from Butley and Barnwell respectively and are in the same hand and ink. But while the first is simply headed Supplicatio in sinodo provinciali the heading of the second mentions its origin at Barnwell and it is a natural inference that the scribe belonged to the house he did not need to specify.'1 Both these documents may be dated 1505. A more entertaining manuscript-entry occurs on the back of the last leaf—a fabricated letter dated 1512 from Paulus Magus, Sultan of Babylon and directed to the Emperor Maximilian.2 With some command of western diplomatic idiom but several grammatical errors, the legendary Sultan offers Maximilian his daughter in marriage, complete with a handsome dowery, on the grounds that she has turned Christian ! This item appears to represent a jeu cTesprit on the part of Thetford, who makes the Sultan promise to send as his ambassadors dignissimos nobiles viros Johannem de Roistane maritum filie fratris nostri et magnum sacerdotem Indie. John Royston, later Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, was a Cambridge contemporary of Thetford,3 and the letter has clear analogies with an earlier Oxford equivalent from ' Presbyter Johannes ' satirising Canterbury College4; they were both probably connected with Christmas ceremonies, like that of ' the King of the Beans ' at Merton College. After the Sultan's letter comes a touching little quatrain5 : And a man wyst what yt were Cunnyng for to see and here he woolde not mysspend an ower for of all tresure yt beryth the flower. The other known Butley book is the sole edition,6 printed at Oxford in 1481, of the commentary upon Aristotle's De Anima usually attributed, though upon uncertain grounds, to the Franciscan Doctor Irrefragabilis, Alexander of Hales (d. 1245),7 whose Summa Theologica was unkindly said by Roger Bacon to weigh more than a horse and to have been in fact composed by others. The British Museum copy bears the inscription' Pertinet ad fratrem Willelmum Wodebrigge Suppriorem de Butteley, pro cuius statu bono humiliter supplica 1. Arch, your., xc. 225-8. 2. Printed infra, Appendix V. 3. He is probably mentioned in our chronicle, infra, p. 39. 4. Shortly to be printed by Mr. Pantin in Canterburv College (Oxford Hist. Soc.), iii. 68 seqq. 5. Another version is in a C.C.C. copy of Glanvill De Proprietatibus Rerum (1488) as part of a poem by, or copied by, Richard Kaye (J. G. Milne, Early Hist, of C.C.C., p. 47). I owe this reference to Mr. Myres. 6 There were, however, two issues (F. Madan, Oxford Books, ii. 4). The Butley copy is Brit. Mus., IB 5S3I57. The most informative colophon runs ' Explicit sentenciosa atque studio digna expositio venerabilis Alexandri super tercium librum de anima. Impressum per me Theodoricum rood de Colonia in alma universitate Oxon. Anno incarnacionis dominice. M. CCCC. Ixxxi. xi die mensis Octobris.'


19

deo.' Other inscriptions show that it subsequently belonged to one John Warner ' precium ij s. iiij d.'; to Archbishop Cranmer ; to Lord Lumley and to the Old Royal Library. This very rare and beautiful black-letter book is one of the earliest printed at Oxford, but possesses little interest except to the bibliophile. Woodbridge perhaps acquired it early in life ; if he actually used it in his later years he would be displaying no more than an antiquated and academic taste for philosophy.1 From this very human but non-humanistic background springs our document. What of the writer himself ? Like the religious who transcribed assorted items into the Butley copy of Lyndwood, he was a rather careless and inelegant Latinist boasting few resources of style or presentation. His Latin owes not a little to that of the Vulgate, yet when we have made all reasonable allowances for mistakes and omissions likely to proceed from the copyist, it remains clear that the original itself terminated many sentences with a lazy 'etc.' and perpetrated a number of strange constructions and neologisms which would have brought blushes to the cheeks of Paris and Whethamstede alike. The numerous notes appended to our text derive from fairly widespread comparison with contemporary original sources. They are directed to assessing factual accuracy, and—such possible comparisons being far more numerous than at any earlier period—subject the work to a scrutiny more searching than we may now apply to most monastic historians. On the whole it emerges with more eclat than the present writer at first anticipated. The Butley canon has his limitations as an annalist. His position allowed of no personal contact with most public transactions. He sometimes wrote well after the events in question, sometimes from vague reports. He probably took little pains to verify his facts and dates, but he is occasionally capable—as in the account of the seafight between the Regent and the Carrack of Brest — of recording an immediate impression and then returning to the topic in the light of fuller knowledge.2 His facts are seldom grossly inaccurate. He admittedly confuses the Scottish seamen Robert and Andrew Barton3 and thinks Paul III was a Cistercian,4 yet these are venial errors adding interest to the work as a specimen of the casual dissemination of news in the provinces. Again, his dating goes sometimes slightly, but seldom violently, astray, and we need no great experience of other contemporary chroniclers, from Hall downwards, to perceive the extreme frequency of their minor inaccuracies and divergences on this score. The Butley canon's accounts of the French campaigns and of Flodden tend to be both vague and militarily uninformed, but he shows a clear interest in maritime affairs both in the Downs and the Channel, an interest suggesting at least a good second-hand knowledge based on his close proximity to the Suffolk ports. The common stock-in-trade of London chroniclers and i. The present writer is acquainted with no expert examination of the work, which is readable in quantity only by the hardened specialist ; it follows the text of the first three books of the Df Anima point by point and is heavily studded with the time-honoured phrases, ' Postquam philosophus dixit quod . . . • postquam etiam dixit quod ' (fo. 88 v). ^. Infra, p. 28. 3. Infra, p. 27. 4. Infra, p. 66,

20

[Me Monasticism and the Reformation

diarists—parliaments, convocations, executions, riots, royal visits, epidemics, taxation, coinage-changes—he recounts with fair accuracy. He proves distinctly valuable as a local annalist of East Suffolk and shows some signs of having visited London ; his few references to more distant parts of the kingdom are, however, couched in terms of vagueness and unfamiliarity. He faithfully records the crossing of kings and ambassadors to Calais in a manner suggesting some direct sources of information. He refers respectfully to contemporary Popes, Emperors and Kings of France, stresses the leniency of the Grand Turk on the fall of Rhodes,1 briefly notices the battle of Pavia2 and the negotiations of Henry VIII with Liibeck.3 Like the great mass of Tudor Englishmen he lacked all intimate information as to haute politique, the purposes and true personal relations of politicians.4 To all his superiors, both ecclesiastical and lay he applies pompous titles with a zestful servility. He is a patriotic Englishman, seeing the divine hand in national victories, yet he tends to ascribe them to God rather than the national strength5 and actually hints a mild scepticism over the English casualty-claims at Flodden. He is above all a loyal subject of Henry VIII and unquestioningly accepts the official view of the treasons ascribed to the Duke of Buckingham6 and the Maid of Kent.7 In all these matters of political history the Butley writer illustrates the ' news-values' of a provincial cleric at a period when we badly need more information on such aspects of the provincial mind. He may contribute very few fresh facts, but he creates a social document. With regard to ecclesiastical history, especially that of East Anglia, his value stands higher. His own general view traverses two stages. The first is dominated by the figure of Wolsey, the local man whose portentous career in church and state he regards with a mingling of obsequious awe and thinly disguised hatred.8 The second phase, heralded by Wolsey's monastic dissolutions, proceeds to the rise of heresy and iconoclasm, to the mounting secularist claims of king and parliament; it is dominated by a sense of doom, the closing of an era which even the elements appear to portend. Hoc anno Venti terribilissimi multi ac nimis pluvie cum fulgore et tonitruo prcesertim estatis tempore et in singulis Mensibus per totum annum atque cum diversis subitanie mortis langoribusy et refrigessit caritas Multorum, amor nullus nee minus devocionis populorum restat, cum pluribus falsis Opinionibus et Cismatibus contra Ecclesiastica Sacramento.9 Could a literary historian desire any better example of a ' monk ' proclaiming the end of his ' medieval' world ? The early years of the Reformation parliament he 1. Infra, p. 40. 2. Infra, p. 48. 3. Infra, p. 69. 4. Cf. for parallel examples the diaries of Wriothesley and Machyn ; again, the reformation narrative of the Yorkshire priest Robert Parkyn (Eng. Hist. Rev., Ixii. 64 seqq). 5 Infra, p. 31. 6. Infra, p. 39. 7. Infra, p. 65. It is possible that seditious speech by some canon of Butley occurred in 1536, but the person who charged Sir Thomas Russhe and Prior Manning with ' concealing treason of a canon of Butley,' was obviously uncertain and apparently disreputable (cf. L. & P., xi. 1537). Had serious resistance occurred, we should almost certainly have more evidence than this one obscure reference. 8. Cf. his expressions on Wolsey's death, infra, p. 59. g. Infra, p. 67.


21

likewise describes as vehemens Scisma inter clerum et populum laicalem videlicet contra sacra Ecclesiastica et vitam Clericorum maxime sacerdatum, Necnon contra Sanctissimum Patrem Papam,1 phraseology reminiscent of that used by the great conservative figure of these years, Bishop Fisher : ' Now with the commons is nothing but doune with the church and all this me semeth is for lacke of faith only.'2 And as our writer chronicles the burning of the Dutch heretics and of Bilney3—another native and frequenter of the diocese whom he may well have known—we experience an almost uncanny sense that the world of Abbot Whethamstede, even that of Matthew Paris, is for a moment touching the world of John Foxe before it relapses into silence. Concerning East Anglian religious houses and diocesan officials, the Butley writer provides many fresh facts and a few documents of interest. He supplements our already considerable knowledge of the long and vigorous administration of Bishop Nix and his suffragan Bishop Underwood. He provides significant additions to our knowledge of local transactions and events such as the funeral of the second Duke of Norfolk in 1524, an impressive ceremony for which East Anglian society, both lay and clerical, was assembled in force.4 He illustrates the increasingly intimate connections of monastic life with the families of Howard, Brandon, Willoughby, Wingfield and Russhe, concerning some of which new genealogical particulars emerge. A simple man flattered by the visits of the great, he apparently fails to perceive their dangerous relationship with the lay spirit he deplores with deep foreboding. The free and prolonged use of the East Anglian monasteries made by the upstart Duke of Suffolk and his royal bride during their summer progresses is certainly not unparalleled by the visits of notables in earlier ages,5 but the secular atmosphere—that of the rich, gracious, hearty layman in the convenient monastic roadhouse—seems more obtrusive in these Tudor years than ever before. And that the role of the Suffolks in relation to religious houses is no mere accident of the Butley register, the events of the Augustinian chapter at Leicester in 1518 sufficiently indicate. Here the King, the Queen, the Princess, Cardinal Wolsey and the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk were admitted as brothers and sisters of the Order. No earlier chapter contained such names, yet through the acts of this one runs a querulous and desperate tone, anticipating by a few years that of the Butley register ; a typical speaker announces ' the lamentable ruin of all monasticism, that is imminent.'6 The more personal characteristics of the Butley canon are those we might expect in a virtuous and sensitive, but not highly educated provincial ecclesiastic. 1. Infra, pp. 59-60. 2. Hall, ii. 167. 3. Infra, pp. 59, 68. 4. Infra, p. 43. 5. Cf. the prohibition of visits by uninvited notabilities in 3 Edw. I cap. I. Cf. also Brinkiow, Complaynt of Koderyck Mors (E.E.T.S. extra ser., xxii), p.33. At Butley itself, back in 1494, it was presented ' quod plures sunt accessus generosorum virorum in prioratu maxime consanguinitatis et affinitatis Prioris [Thomas Framlinghamj in magnum detrimentum domus ' (N.V., p. 54). 6. Chapters of the Augustinian Canons, ed. Salter (Oxford Hitt. Soc., Ixxiv), pp. xxxv-xxxvi.

22


He can spare gentle recommendations of abhorred heretics to the divine mercy and note the deaths of birds and rabbits in a winter of intense cold. He rejoices when a glut of herrings at Orford brings relevamen et confortacionem to the people of Suffolk.1 His mind lies under the periodic shadow of pestilence, famine, flood, of the harsh winters and terrible storms he can so vividly describe. By modern standards he remains superstitious, not in the sophisticated and sinister manner of his century but in the simpler idiom of monks centuries ago : 'A most terrible wind and savage tempest occurred here this year (1513) on the feast of St. Michael after vespers, in which tempest the Devil appeared in Essex in the species or similitude of a very black dog—that is to say, near the village called Chich. And he set fire to part of the belltower of the monastery of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and St. Osyth, and at length went off without hurting anybody, thank God. This year a parliament was held on January 20, in which was voted to the King's Majesty sixpence in the pound on all goods moveable and immoveable, this to continue the war against his most cruel enemies the Scots and the French.'2 He displays naive wonder at the huge fish cast up at Bawdsey, which was 17 feet long, filled a waggon and was not a little good and sweet, whether roasted, or boiled, and the tail of which was also fixed up on an oak tree outside the little porch called the ' Seler gate.'3 Concerning his order and colleagues he mingles tactful reticence, even unfair partiality, with a few very frank admissions. His accounts of visitations are far more dignified than the official records of these same transactions which we have examined above. He takes the side of the rascally prior of Walsingham as against his monks.4 On the other hand he refers objectively and coldly to the suicide and exhumation of his late prior Robert Brommer, qui quidem Robertus seipsum miserabiliter interfecit . ... in domo Ricardi Cardan Gipzoici.5 He puts an extremely critical interpretation on the withdrawal of his elegant brother Orford in fitting company with the criminous canon.6 He admits the presentation to the vicarage of Bawdsey of an unlearned cleric who proved unable to answer the Bishop's elementary grammatical questions, and he humbly concludes ' it therefore behoves us to beware what sort of a person we present.'7 And describing how the Duke of Norfolk carried out an elaborate search for vagabonds and miscreants, he does not scruple to add * in which search, as it is said, divers religious (fratres) and some laymen were found in various places miserably and wickedly sleeping with girls and harlots.'8 It would nevertheless be misleading to dwell unduly upon these sensational aspects of decline and fall, which after all occur profusely enough in visitationrecords from the thirteenth century onwards. For once we have a document with slightly deeper perspectives. Men of genuine vocation and consistency appear in these pages ; so near the dissolution we may still read of John Green, 1. 2. 3. 4.

Infra, Infra, Infra, Infra,

pp. 59, 26, 48. p. 31. p. 26. p. 32.

5. 6. 7. 8.

Infra, Infra, Infra, Infra,

p. p. p. p.

25. 49. 35. 53.


23

Abbot of Leiston, who in 1531 spontaneously resigned his office and was consecrated as an anchorite in the long-abandoned abbey by the sea-shore.1 Granted such examples of zeal were exceptional, how often must the normal, mildly pious monk like our chronicler have shed at some auspicious point in the ceaseless round of services his cloak of boredom, to experience afresh the perennial claim of some mystery of the faith ? And the mere lay observer may well surmise that this all-too-obtrusive outer society afforded occasional touches of humanity and domesticity improving rather than otherwise to the soul of the good monk—as when young Lady Mounteagle stayed behind, her party having left for London, gravida aut prole fcecunda et postea Dei gratia a pulchro puero deltberata,2 or when Regina et Dux cum suis generosis et generosibus vulpes apud parcum de Staverton venati sunt et ibidem Prandium suum sub Quercubus sumpsere cum Joco et Ludo satis Jucundis.3 The last years of Butley undoubtedly included some good days, when the sense of menace and doom softened into the rather melancholy and vapid charm which breathes through some of these inarticulate and truncated pages. Generalisation concerning the vitality of English religious houses is a risky process : in certain well-documented establishments like Christ Church, Canterbury, and Canterbury College the spark of life continues manifest well into the sixteenth century. Yet with certain exceptions, among which we must number the London Carthusians and a few northern houses, English monasticism was too old, too enfeebled, too forgotten to die violently amid dramatic passions. The Butley register retains a just sense of values by its cessation in 1535 ; modern writers have concentrated overmuch upon the spectacle of Cromwell's hirelings in the act of removing the corpse. The last hours of monasticism are already at hand when the lovely Dowager of France, spending her summer holiday at Butley, eats her supper one hot, thundery summer evening in Brother Nicholas Oxburgh's garden and, as the heavy drops begin to fall, hastens to finish it in the church. The process seems often rather elegant as well as unconscionably slow; relatively painless too, if we pause to consider how great and strong the sufferer had been in his prime. Monasticism is passing, not in heroic struggle with lay society, but with a foxhunt across Staverton Park and a jolly dinner-party under the greenwood tree.

I. Infra, p. 59.

2. Infra, p. 55.

3. Infra, p. 54.

BUT LEY PRIORY J>C4Z^ OFFSET 10

O

10

I

20

30

40

50

6O 70

.1.. I LATE 12THCENTURY S3 13TH CENTURA (REKE-DORTK UNCERTAIN! 14THCENTURY E£S3 ISTHCENTURY MODERN FARM BU1LUNC5 I FOUNDATIONS or EARLY CHURCH TP ~ TILE PAVINC IN SITU

(fo. 24) A.D. 1510

f. 4. Snape.1 Edmundus Dudeley et Ricardus Empson diem decesserunt extremum.

f. 5

f. 5 Obitus Domini Roberti Brommer nuper Prioris hujus Prioratus et exhumacio ejusdem de Sanctuario.

THE REGISTER OF BUTLEY PRIORY Hoc Anno mense Julii Dominus Ricardus Betts Monachus nuper de Eia factus est Prior de Snape.2 Hoc etiam anno xvi° die Mensis Augusti3 decapitati fuerunt London' prope Turrim Regis ibidem Edmundus Dudeley, qui in diebus Henrici Regis VII fuit Presidens Concilii Regii, attamen malae conscientiae et ideo meruit penam prsefatam, et Ricardus Empson, qui fuit quasi Senescallus Ducatus Lancastrian, pessimae Conscientia; et infelicissimse Conversationis vulgariter nuncupatus ideo etc.4 Eodem5 die (sc. 24 Aug.) Dominus Prior recepit mitram et baculum pastoralem solemniter benedictos ab Episcopo Calcidonensi,6 videlicet ad summam [sic] altare et missam magnam etc. Eodem etiam Anno xxvi. die Mensis Septembris viz. die Jo vis in mane circa horam septimam per mandatum Episcopale destinatum . . . .7 in virtute sanctse obedientiae exhumatum fuit Cadaver Domini Roberti Brommer, nuper Prioris hujus Prioratus,8 viz. de Sanctuario Sancti Joannis Baptistae parochialis Ecclesiae de Buttley et sepultum fuit iterum per manus Laicorum extra Sanctuarium, viz. in proximam viam tendentem a dicta Ecclesia usque vicum vocatum Haufenstrete.9 Qui quidem Robertus seipsum miserabiliter interfecit xxv die Mensis Maii Anno Regni Regis Henrici Octaui primo in domo Ricardi Garden10 Gipwici et sepultus per mandatum W. Wodebrig Supprioris hujus Ecclesiae extra arnbulatorum [sic] per spacium ij ulnarum Ecclesiae parochiae praedictas, viz. ex parte occidental! dicti Cimiterii juxta communem viam tendentem de vico vocato Haufenstrete et Anno sequenti viz Mensis Junii

1. Our MS. omits further passages concerning Snape dated 1509 and on fo. 4 of the original MS. Cf. supra, p. 3. 2. This corrects two errors in V.C.H., Suffolk, ii. 80. Betts was back at Eye as prior in 1520 (N.V., p. 183). 3. Hall (1.20) and others give 18 Aug. 1510. 4. The numerous ' etc.'s almost certainly existed in the original MS. ; the habit is frequent with Tudor writers. Tanner himself retains them in his corrections. 5. This entry, ' Eodem . . . . magnam etc.," is inserted, wholly in Tanner's hand. 6. John Underwood, Suffraean of Norwich as Bishop of Chalcedon, 1505-1531. Cf. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigientes, i. 78 ; Handbook of British Chronology, ed. Powicke, p. 189. 7. On the numerous omissions so indicated in our MS., cf. supra, p. 2. 8. Brommer became prior 1508 ; committed suicide 1509, probably in May or June (L. & P., I (i) 94, no. 106 ; 132, no. 76 ; 438, p. 207). The house was then being proceeded against as a debtor to the Crown (ibid., 1493. p. 680). Brommer (alias Breamore, Brenmore, Brynmore) had probably some connection with the Augustinian house of Breamore, Hants, the name of which shows these same variants. He docs not appear among the canons in a visitation of 1501 (V.C.H. Hants, ii. 171). 9. The placename does not appear to have survived, but the family of Hawfen or Haughfen was prominent at Butley in this period. Robert and Joan Haughfen were among the servants of the Priory in 1538 (cf. Appendix I, infra) and William Hawfen was organising export of wheat from Butley in the same year (L. & P.I, xiii (i). 432). 10. Roger Cardon occurs at Ipswich c. 1506-13 (F.A. Crisp, Calendar of Wills at Ipswich, 1444-1600, p. 106).

26


Ingens Piscis

Nix 1511 f. 7. Navis de Scotia vocata Rubeus Leo cum alia Navicula vocata Ly Barke captee sunt.

vir venerabilis Johannes Prior de Tortyngton1 cum Willelmo B . . . .2 Canonico et cum auctoritate papali3 removit Cadaver dicti Roberti et sepelivit . . . ,4 prope ostium australe dictae Ecclesiat et tune etc. ut supra.5 Inveniebatur apud Bawdesey6 primo die Mensis Novembris Anno Regni Regis ut supra, qui quidem Piscis unam bigam nimis oneravit in longitudine continens xvii pedes. Insuper dictus Piscis fuit non parum bonus et dulcis, tarn assatus quam coctus et pistus, cujus autem Cauda fixa est super quandam quercum extra porticulam vocatam Ly Seler gate.7 Primo die Januarii natus fuit Henricus filius Primogenitus Henrici Octavi Regis prsedicti ac Princeps Wallise apud Manerium de Grenewyche, qui quidem Henricus ibidem obiit die Sancti Mathias Apostoli proximo tune sequenti.8 Nix valida et gelu vehemens a vigilia Sancti Thomas Apostoli9 usque ad diem xiii Februarii proximum tune sequenti [sic] continuavere sive duravere, quo tempore mortem10 subiere sive tulere Aves et Cuniculi non pauci. Hoc Anno Vigilia Sancti Jacobi Apostoli11 capti sunt preedictse Naves per Dominum Johannem Howard12 super Mare in loco qui dicitur nigre altitudines,13 black deep, per preceptum Domini Regis Angliae in quo conflicto plurimi de Scotis interfecti, et plurimi vulnerati plerique semi[an]imi relicti vix supervixerunt, Et in Manerio Domini Eboracensis Archi-Episcopi London' inclusi sunt et, ut multi ferunt, bini et bini cathenati incedunt ad numerum ^ quorum capitaneus fuit nominatus Robertus

1. Tortington, the Augustinian house in Sussex. The dates of its priors are imprecise : John Page occurs 1478, then John Gregory, 1524. The suggestion in the Chichester Episcopal Register of a vacancy in 1521 directs the present reference to the former (V.C.H., Sussex, ii. 83). 2. Sic MS. The canon was not necessarily of Butley, though William Bevyrley occurs here 1494 (N.V., p. 54). 3. Tanner writes ' papali,' having struck out some erroneous reading. 4. Dots inserted by Tanner. 5. ' Utsupra ' expanded by Tanner from ' uts.' 6. On the coast, seven miles south of Butley. 7. The article ' le ' or ' ly ' commonly introduces vernacular expressions into Latin texts. Cf. numerous examples below, and ' le seling' in N.V., p. 287. The cellarer's range lay along the west side of the cloister and the excavations revealed a projecting porticus. Cf. plan, p. QO. 8. Henry, Prince of Wales, born at Richmond i Jan. 1511 ; died the following 22 Feb. (cf. Pollard, Henry VIIJ, p. 175). Hall (i. 27) calls the latter date ' the even of saint Mathy,' but the feast of St. Matthias was usually kept 24i Feb.

9. ax Dec. 10. ' Mortem ' inserted in Tanner's hand.

n. 25 July. 12. Actually Sir Edward Howard, later Lord Admiral. The name is given correctly infra. The subsequent account of the action against Andrew Barton is interesting in view of the 'lack of- other strictly contemporary records. It effectively disposes of the suggestion (D.N.B. s.v. Howard, Sir Edward) that the presence of the Howards was a late apocryphal addition. 13. ' Blacke depes ' added also above by Tanner. The name still denotes a channel 18 m. east of the Naze. The writer's local knowledge doubtless excelled that of Hall and Leslie (Scottish Text Soc., vi. 135), who both merely mention ' the Downs ' and give no precise date. Hall (i. 38) calls the ships ' the Lion ' and ' the Barke of Scotlande, called Jenny Pirwyn ' (Leslie: ' Jennipirrvyne,'' Jenniparva ') ; he also mentions the prisoners at York Place, Westminster. 14. Tanner substitutes this figure for ' v. xx,' five score.


27

Berton alias vocatus secundum vulgare dictum1 Hobbe a Berton.2 Et liberati sunt ire quocunque voluerunt circa undecimum diem Decembris tune proximum sequentem.

(fo. 24b) 1511

Memorandum ij die Mensis Decembris Anno regni regis ut supra de quadam Acquietancia Sigillo Conventuali sigillata cujus copia verbatim subsequitur.

f. 7 Scriptum per manus Domini Willelmi Woodbrigge &c.

Be it known to all men that I Augusten, Prior of the Monastery of our blessed Lady of Buttley and Convent of the same, In and for plenarie Restitucion and Satisfaction and full Contentacion of all injuries and wrongs that we can or in any maner of wyse complayn or pretend to have be doon to Us at any time or times, or in any cause or causes of what qualitie or Condicion soevyr, that be by our late Sovereyne Lorde Kinge Henry the VIIth or by any other in his name or by his Comanndment, or to his use contrary to Lawe, Reason and Conscience, have hadde and receyved of the Executours of the sayd late Kynge sufficient Restitucion and Recompence as ferre and for [sic] muche as we cowde in anywise aske or demannde, of the whiche we confesse our selffs fully and holly contented. And the said late Kynge and his Sowle, and the said Executours of and for the said wrongs byfore God and the Worlde in Law and Conscience clerly and utterly and perfittely as ferre as we can or may we acquiete, and that this our confession, Remission and acquietannce procedith of our free will, pure mindes and charitie. And that we thynke the same and noon other in our hertes and myndes withoute any fiction or dissimulacion, We take hytt upon our Conscience, And therwith charge our Soules and freely discharge the Sowles of the said late Kynge and the said Executours and of all mannor of accions, quarelles and demanndes that in any maner of wise for any manner of matier, cause or thynge that we have hadde, discharge and acquiete them by theis presents with our Convent Scale and subscribed with the hand of me the said Prior the secunde day of the monthe of December the iiide yere of our moste Sovereigne Lord Kynge H[enry] the viiith.3

Acquietancia Exec. Domini Regis nuper Regis Henrici viimi.

1512 f. 8 Parliamentum. I.

Hoc Anno viz. tertio die Februarii fuit Parliamentum apud Westmonasterium prorogatum usque 4tum diem Novembris

Tanner strikes out ' sm vulgariter dictus ' and substitutes ' secundum vulgare dictum.'

z. Actually Andrew Barton, the most celebrated Scottish sailor of the period (D.N.B.) commanded on this occasion and was killed. The fight was subsequently celebrated in the ballad Sir Andrew Barton (Bishop Percy's Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, iii. 399 se?g.)- Contemporary state papers (L. & P., i, passim) are nevertheless full of the maritime exploits of his almost equally famous brother Robert, frequently called Hob a Barton, and later lord high treasurer of Scotland. 3.

2 Dec., 1511.

28


proximum futurum,1 in quo concessae fuerunt duse quindecimae2 solvendae ad festum Sancti Thomae Martyris3 et Purificationis beatse Marise proximum futurum.4 Convocacio Hoc etiam anno scilicet vito die Februarij5 fuit Convocatio Cleri. Cleri in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London' prorogata usque vitum diem Mensis proximum futurum. In qua concessae fuerunt duae integrse decimae nomine subsidii solvendae ad festa Sancti Thomas Martiris et Purificationis beatae Mariae proxima futura. Novus Pons Hoc anno factus est Pons novus apud Ly Ferry6 ex sumptibus apud le Ferry. et custibus Henrici Barrett7 servientis Domino Priori. Organa. Hoc Anno magna Organa et Mediocra Organa fuerunt quasi de nova reparata ac bene intonata et sonorata ex sumptibus Domini Prioris. Item unum par Organorum bene intonatum et sonoratum, cum ii obstruccionibus,8 ex sumptibus Henrici Barrett servienti [sic] in hoc Monasterio, viz. in honore Sanctse Mariae Virginis scilicet remanendum hie in Capella ejusdem gloriosae Virginis. Hoc Anno Dominus Rex Henricus paravit Navigium non (fo. 25} 1512 parvum ad Mare contra Gallicos et Scotos Cujus Capitaneus f. 8. Regium principalis seu Ammiraldus alias Admiraldus fuit Dominus Navigium Edwardus Howard. Et ut plurimi ferunt dictus Eduardus ad mare. submersit Navem in qua fuit Admiraldus Franciae, viz. quando Carecta et Ly Regent obviabant.9 Anno quarto Regis fuit in qua concesserant [sic] suae Serenae Convocacio Majestati quatuor integrae decimae.10 Cleri f. 10. Combustio Praedicta Carecta vocata the Karyck of Bryst fuit xviiiC doliorum et Submersio et habuit intra se xvC homines unde v fuerunt magni Domini Navis vocatae de Francia et CCC Milites et generosi de Francia, reliqui de vulgo ly Carecke scilicet viri Armati, Marinarii, gubernarii etc.11 1. The commons sat 4 Feb.-ao March and 4 Nov.-20 Dec. 1512. 2. The laity granted two fifteenths and the clergy in convocation, as correctly reported infra, two tenths in the Feb.-March session (Stow, p. 49*). 3. 29 Dec. 4. 2 Feb. 5. The correct date (Handbook of British Chronology, p. 371). 6. Probably the footbridge over the Tang, the tributary which joins the Butley River at the Ferry. The Keeper of the Ferry occurs in the Dissolution-list of Butley personnel (Appendix I, infra) ; the Ferry was subsequently leased (W. A. Copinger, County of Suffolk, i. 446). 7. Henry Baret, a substantial layman and ' Servant to Master Pryor ther' made important benefactions to the Priory. Cf. his will in Appendix IV, infra. He occupied quarters previously belonging to the priors (infra, p. 52). 8. I.e. a two-stop organ ; it will be observed infra, p. 66 that a five-stop organ was constructed in 1534. These references form interesting addenda to the work of £. F. Rimbault and other historians of early English organs. 9. This paragraph on the fight (10 Aug. 1512) between the Regent and the Great Carrack of Brest (otherwise la Reine) probably represents the first news, the narrative being continued infra in the light of fuller knowledge. 10. Four tenths were granted in the Nov.-Dec. session, 1512 (Stow, p. 491) 11. Hall (i. 55-6) says only 900 Frenchmen were lost, and 700 Englishmen with Sir Thomas Knevett, captain of the Regent, and Sir John Carew. A Venetian in London gives 170 English saved out of 800 and only 20 French out of 1500. This latter writer estimates the Carrack as of 1400 to 1500 tons, but says it was only a ' bark '; the Regent he gives as 100 tons less, Venetian Calendar, ii, no. 199). Polydore Vergil (p. 186) gives 600 English and about 1000 French lost.


29

pertinentis Regi Francise et Navis vocatae ly Regent pertinentis Regi Anglise. 1513 f. 11. Navigium Domini Regis.

Et praedicta Navis ly Regent una cum praedicta Carecta combusta et submersa, ubi perierunt diversi generosi de Anglia scilicet Thomas Knevett Miles strenuissimus etc., Quorum animabus Deus propitietur.

f. 12. Edmundus Le Pole quondam Comes Suffolciae decapitatus. Dominus Talbot alias vocatus Shrovesbury cum diversis aliis Dominis

Hoc Anno die 11° Mensis Maii Vigilia Assencionis Domini4 circa horam undecimam et horam xiiam Caput suum dimisit super Capitolium juxta Turrim Londini, cui Deus misereatur.

Hoc Anno in Fine Mensis Marcii Dominus Rex prseparavit et misit Immane et fortissimum Navigium ad Mare custodiendum a Franci[g]enis et Scotis et aliis inimicis nostris, Cui praefuit Dominus Edvardus Howard Miles et Capitaneus Principalis, et eodem tempore Idem Edwardus factus est Admiraldus Mans, et circa Medium Mensis Aprilis1 dictus Edvardus cum toto dicto Navigio navigavit et applicavit ad partes Britannise ad portum vocatum Byrst, ubi Invenit Navigium Regis Francorum. Et dictus Edwardus volens se vindicare de una magna Galea, ut dicitur, sepissime incitanti dictum Edvardum per insidiosas navigaciones hie ibi et alibi, applicuit eidem Galeae et eandem intravit et ibidem Jugulatus eorum telis et Machinis mortuus est, cujus animae propitietur altissimus ; quidam dicit eum submersum inter galeam et Navem suam,2 In cujus loco posuit Dominus Rex Angliae Dominum Johannem3 Howard fratrem dicti Edvardi vocatum Dominum Howard et Admiraldum Maris Angliae. Et circa principium Mensis Junii dictus Admiraldus tresdecim Naves sale et vino onustas de Britannicis cepit.

Anno hoc in fine Mensis Maii5 navigavit transmare ad Calisiam, et sic ad Boloniam cum Exercitu fortissimo numero 3 mil[l]e Armatorum cum inenarrabilibus apparatubus, cum gunniis,6 fundibulariis, fundis ferreis et aeneis,7 Arcubus planis et cruciferis,8 sagittis, catupultis, gladiis, fustibus, et aliis Machinis

1. Hall (i. 59) has the date 16 April. 2. Apart from the fact that Howard was simply thrown overboard by a pikeman, this account compares closely with the best: Hall, i. 59-60 ; L. f& P., i. 4005. 3. An error for Thomas Howard, elder brother of the late admiral (Hall, i 60). 4. Ascention day actually fell on 5 May in 1513. Wriothesley (Chronicle, Camden Soc., new ser. xi, p. 8) gives ' on the Assertion even ' ; Stow (p. 492) ' on May eeven," and Polydore Vergil (p. 202), May 4. 5. Hall (i. 61) says Shrewsbury (Steward of the Household) crossed to Calais ' in the middle of May." 6. The normal word is ' gunna.' 7. The armament of this expedition was elaborate. Stow (p. 492) writes of' the King's artillerie, as faulcons, slings, bombardes, powder, stones, bowes, arrowes.' Slings in the literal sense were in fact used as late as 1572 at the siege of Sancerre, but' fundis ferreis et eeneis ' must mean slings in Stow's sense, i.e. serpentines or culverins, and is a literal translation from English into Latin. By analogy, the writer should mean by ' fundibularius ' not a stinger, but a gunner. He probably encountered such terms in the Vulgate ; e.g. ' fundibula ' in I Mace., vi. 51 which is translated ' slings ' in the Douay Bible of 1609. The passage as a whole should not be accorded too serious technical attention. 8. English archers played a considerable part in the campaign (Hall, i. 62); as usual, crossbowmen only fought on the French side (ibid., i. 70).

30


Angliae vel Lord Styward.

bellicosis non paucis, et obsidebat villain de Torwyn,1 et die Sancti Bartholomsei Apostoli2 praedicta Villa vel Civitas deliberata fuit ad opus Regis Angliae, ante cujus deliberacionem multi ex Anglia fuerunt letaliter vulnerati et usque ad mortem extincti per Picardorum et Francigenorum bellicas Machinaciones, et hasc Civitas fuit muro fortitudinis pro defensione et impossible fuisset obtinere illam si victus abiddaverit [sic] scilicet divina gracia defunctus et Rex ex speciali sua gracia quemlibet armatum et bellicosum et . . . . exire dicta Civitate cum bonis suis.3

(fo. 25b) 1513 f. 12. Ventus vehementissimus

Fuit hoc Anno Mense Augusti nocte ante diem Sancti Augusti[ni]4 Arbores et domos plerasque subruens eradicans et substernens in nonnullis locis et totam Angliam [sic].

Dominus Rex accepit

Navagium apud Dovear versus Calisiam deinde usque partes Galliee et Franciae Ultimo die Mensis Junii5 scilicet die Sancti Pauli, et ibidem moram trahebat usque diem veneris scilicet festum Sanctse Mariae Magdalenae,6 et tune Iter arripuit usque villam de Gyghnes7 per Sanctum Thomam8 a die Sancti Laurentii9 ad obviandum Maximiliano Imperatori, Dominae Margarets Ducessse de Savaye, et postea predictus Rex Angliae obsidebat villam aut Civitatem de Turneia et in die Sancti Matthei Apostoli et Evangeliste10 proximo deliberata est sine magna lesione Anglicorum. Et Gives inde solverint et imperpetuum solvent predicto Regi et heredibus suis Annualem Redditum, viz. in recognicione suae liberacionis.

Jacobus Rex Scotiae in Campo . . . . obiit.

Hoc anno die veneris scilicet in Festo Nativitatis beatae Marias Virginis11 commissum fuit ingens praslium bellum in campo vocato . . . .12 Inter Jacobum Regem Scotiae cum suis et Thomam Comitem de Surray Regium Thesaurarium Angliae

I. Terouenne, usually spelt ' Tirwin ' by Hall. 2 I.e. 24 Aug., when the King made his triumphal entry, though according to Hall (i. 89) Shrewsbury had actually entered the town as early as 18 Aug. 3. Hall (i. 89) similarly mentions the ' penury of vitayle ' and the departure of the garrison ' with horse and harnes." 4. I.e. the night of 27-28 Aug. 5. The correct date (Hall, i. 64). 6. 22 July, which was a Friday in 1513. Hall (i. 66) and Chron. Calais, p. 13, say that the King took the field from Calais on 21 July. 7. Guisnes, near which the King lay the night after advancing from Calais (Chron. Calais, p. 13). 8. An error by author or copyist for St. Omer, there being no feast of St. Thomas around this date. The King passed near, but did not enter. St. Omer about i Aug., and was at the siege of Terouenne by 10 Aug. (Hall, i. 72-5). g. 10 Aug., the date assigned by Chron. Calais (p. 14) to the meeting of Henry and Maximilian near Terouenne. The King subsequently passed on to Lille and there met Margaret, Duchess of Savoy and Regent of the Netherlands, 17 Sept. (Hall, i. 92). 10. 21 Sept. Authorities differ slightly as to the precise date of the surrender of Tournay, but 21 Sept. is directly supported by Chron. Calais, p. 15. xi. 8 Sept., a Thursday in 1513, but Flodden was in fact fought Friday, 9 Sept. 12. This omission probably occurred in the original MS. Stow still calls it the battle of Bramstone (pp. 495, 505).


31

cum suis, ubi victoria pratdicto Comiti collata esset, et praefatus Rex cecidit letaliter vumeratus et plagatus cum numero Scotorum ut fertur per Anglicos Sex Milia et plures.1 Et hoc non contingebat ex fortitudine et vi Anglicorum scilicet gratia divina auxiliante, quasi Scoti fuerunt viri fortes et bello doctissimi et mirum in modum armati (Ideo Deo gratias altissimo qui victoriam triumpham dat vel vult et cui vult2) et plurimi eorum fuerunt robustissimi. Neque perlibati [stc]3 Regis Scotise Cadaver evectum fuit per praefatum Comitem et suos . . . . usque ad Monasterium Monachorum Cartuensium juxta montem dictum in Anglica voce Rychemownt.4 Et ut fertur praefatum Cadaver ibidem jacebat haud humatum per . . . .5 Annorum spatium eoque excommunicatus obiit.6 Ventus t[er]ribilissimus et tempestas sevissima

Hoc Anno in Festo Sancti Michaelis de Tumba7 fuit post vesperas hie per spatium ij. horarum, In qua tempestate in spetie vel similitudine eavis [sic]8 nigerimi aperuit [sic] Diabolus in Essex, viz. juxta villam vocatam Chircke9 et Campanilis partem Monasterii beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli et Sanctae Osithae combussit et tandem recessit absque alicujus lesione, Deo gratias.

(fo. 26) 1513 fo. 13 Parliamentum

Hoc Anno10 xx die Mensis Januarii11 fuit in quo concessum est Regiae Majestati, ad continuandum bellum et prelia contra Francigenos et Scotos Inimicos suos crudelissimos, de qualibet libra de omnibus mobilibus bonis sive immobilibus per totam Angliam sex denarios. Ubi Thomas Comes de Surray creatus est Dux Norfolchiae et Dominus Carolus Brandon Dux Suffolciae.12

1. Some Englishmen advanced even higher claims ; Hall (i. in) gives 12,000 ; Polydore Vergil (p. 22O), 10,000 Scots and 5,000 English. 2. This pious ejaculation may have been an interpolation in the original MS. and misplaced by the copyist. 3. The punctuation and meaning of this passage is not quite certain. I insert the stop after ' robustissimi' on the assumptions (i) that ' perlibati ' is a mistranscription of ' praelibati,' a favourite term of the writer when mentioning notable persons, and (2) that several words are omitted between ' suos' and ' usque." The writer's original intention may be elucidated by Stow (p. 495) who says that Surrey left the body at Berwick lapped in lead, and did not remove it southward until the north was quiet and the King's pleasure known. 4. In the Carthusian monastery at Sheen near Richmond, of which the writer had apparently no local knowledge. 5. Probably blank in original MS, James being still unburied. 6. Henry obtained papal permission to bury the excommunicated King in consecrated ground (D.N.B., s.v. ames IV) but Stow (p. 495) says ' since the dissolution of the house [Sheen], to wit in the reign of K. Ed. the 6 . . . . have been shewed the same body (as was affirmed) so lapped in lead, thrown into an olde waste roome, amongst olde timber, stone, lead, and other rubble.' 7. Michael in Monte Tumbra, 16 Oct. 8. The copyist's error for ' canis.' The Devil appeared again in the form of a black dog at Bungay in 1577 and murdered two persons in church (Narratires of the Reformation, Ca.iiden Soc., Ixxvii, p. 51). These form two interesting early examples of the famous East Anglian legend of the ' Black Shuck," which persisted throughout the last century. Q. Chich, the parish in which lay the Augustinian abbey of SS. Peter, Paul and Osyth. 10. 1513-1411. The Commons sat 23 Jan.-4 March 1514, granting, as here stated, a subsidy of dd in the pound on moveablee (Wriothesley, op. cit., i. 9). 12. On I Feb. 1514 (Handbook of British Chronology, pp 322, 333).

J

32


1514 f. 15. Cleri Convocacio.

Navis vocata Herry the gracidew. f. 16. Walsingham Prior.

f. 18. Obitus Regis Franciae.

f. 19

Parliamentum Cleri Convocatio

Hoc Anno xxii die Mensis Junii per Cardinalem et Legatum1 fuit Cleri Convocacio, In qua nil concessum est, ut quidam ferunt papa . . . . nomine Leo percepit2 [sic] Clero Anglicano Ut Nichil quo ad guerram manutenendam concederent Regi Angliae.3 Hoc Anno Mense prsedicto facta est regia Navis vocata Herry the gracidew continens xviiiC dolia.4 Hoc Anno die Sancti Augustini doctoris5 scilicet die mensis Augusti Willelmus . . . .6 Prior Monasterii beatae Mariae de Walsingham resignavit nolens volens in manus Reverendi Patris Ricardi Nix alias Nicke Episcopi Norvicen', multis de causis contra praefatum Willelmum per obstinates fratres ingratos suos ibidem crudeliter illatis,7 Cui successit . . . . Prior de . . . . in Diocesi London'.8 Hoc Anno Mense Januarii viz. ii die Ludovicus Francise Rex nobilissimus spiritum emisit,9 Cui nuper Domina Maria Excellentissimi Regis Anglias soror nupsit ut antea clarius elucidat et apparet, et postea vocabatur Francorum Regina. Hoc Anno circa primum diem Maii10 Dominus Carolus Dux Suffolciae venit de ultra mare cum Domina Maria Regina Franciae cum multis aliis nobilibus. xiii° die Mensis Novembris In quo—n In xiiiito die Mensis antedicti. In qua Clerus Angliae concessit Regiae Majestati Duas integras decimas solvendas in quatuor annis proximis sequentibus, viz. quolibet Anno dimidiam Decimam.12

1. ' per Cardinalem et Legatum ' inserted above in copyist's own hand. 2. For ' praecepit.' 3. Refers to the session of 23 June—i July 1514 ; this convocation was in fact prorogued to 20 Dec., when two tenths were granted to the King (Wilkins, iii. 658). This rumour concerning Leo X is of interest, since in May 1514 Leo had sent Ludqvico di Canossa to reconcile his champion Henry VIII with Louis XII. Canossa was supported by Wolsey, who aspired to the cardinalate, and the Anglo-French alliance, with the marriage contract between Louis and Mary Tudor, was duly signed 7 Aug. (Pastor, Hist, of the Popes, vii. 98-100). 4. The correct date. This earlier of the two ships called Henry Grace de Dieu is consistently described in official records as of 1500 tons (Blackwood's Mag., mclxxx (1914). 206 has best account), but owing to differing methods of estimation, a variation up to 33 J per cent, is not uncommon in the sixteenth century (Cf. J. S. Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy, ii. 452-5). 5. 28 Aug. 6. This prior was William Lowth, 1503-14 (V.C.H., Norfolk, ii. 401). 7. On the unhappy state of Walsingham Priory in July 1514 cf. N.V., pp. 113 seqq. and V.C.H., Norfolk, ii. 396. The Bishop then appointed the Prior of Westacre to control Lowth (N.V., p. 123) to whom our Butley writer is curiously partial. The canons may have been disobedient, incorrigible, litigious and insolent (ibid. p. 114) but the evidence against Lowth seems both convincing and sensational. He had also made the mistake of defying Nix : ' When my lorde of Norwiche is goon I shall turne every thing as I woll' (ibid., p. 117). 8. Lowth's successor was Richard Vowell, Prior of the Austin canons of Lees, Essex, 1510 - 1514 (Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses). Our writer is hence correct regarding the London diocese. 9. Louis XII died I Jan. 1515. 10. They crossed 2 May 1515 (Stow, p. 498), having been secretly married in Paris. 11. Sic MS. 12. Substantially correct. This convocation sat 13 Nov.-20 Dec. 1515 and granted two tenths to be paid by four equal portions, the first at Michaelmas 1517 and the rest at the same feast the next three years (W. Wake, The State of the Church, p. 390 ; Wilkins omits).


33

(fo. 26b) 1515 f. 20. Wolsey.

Hoc Anno Mense Novembris honorandissimus Pater Dominus Thomas Wulcy Archi Episcopus Eboracensis Feltrum Cardinalem [sic] recepit apud Monasterium1 cum immenso honore a sanctissimo Patre Leone Papa Legatum transmissum, Reverendissimo Patre Domino Willelmo Archi Episcopo Cantuariense missam summam ibidem cum Episcoporum, Abbatorum [sic], Priorum et doctorum Muititudine non parva celebrante.2 Qui quidem honorabilis Pate^ Thomas Wulcy fuit prime Regius Elemosinarius, postea Episcopus Lincoln[i]ensis Deinde et nunc Archi Episcopus Eboracensis et Cardinalis ex Latere Sanctissimi Patris Leonis Papae, quem omnipotens Deus in salute continua preservet. Fuit die Conversionis Sancti Pauli Apostoli,3 qui dies fuit totaliter Ventus horribilis et tempestas pluviosus ventosus cum perniciosissima tempestate et maxime sevissima in loco marine dicto a Nautis black dep[?]4 ac Nondum ubi demergebantur plurimi homines et plurime Naves de Yspania et Portugalia ac Francia, Quorum Animabus propitietur Deus. 1516 Hoc Anno xiii° die mensis Junii Excellentissima Domina Maria Francorum Regina . . . . venustissima et Invictissimi Regis nostri Maria FranHenrici Octavi Soror prsedilectissima ac Uxor strenuissimi viri corum Regina recepcio [sic]. Caroli Brandone Ducis Suffol' recepta fuit honore et reverentia potissimus [sic] quibus adtunc religiosius potuimus hoc modo.5 Inprimis scabellum fuit collocatum pallio sericali et duobus pulvillis sericis exopposito portarum nostri Cimiterii. Deinde Prior et Conventus in capis sericis dignebaiule,6 Crucifero, ceroferariis et thuriferario precedentibus usque ad dictum scabellum, quo cum prelatus pervenerit primo genuflexit cum suis ministris, deinde aquam benedictam super suum Ministrum aspersit, Postea super se et ultimo super dictam Reginam. Postea vero earn incensavit et extreme pacis osculum eidem ministravit. Toto hoc tempore ministro Mitram praelati de Capite tenente. Hiis finitis precentor Antiphonam Reginam [sic] celi inchoavit, cum qua nostram in Ecclesiam usque ad summum altare intravit, et illic genua sua super pulvillis et pallio ibidem posuit. Interim vnum nobile aureum per . . . . obtulit et super dictum altare dimisit. Cantitata dicta Antiphona, Prelatus morose ac devote 1. For * Westmonasterium.' 2. The Bishop of Worcester's secretary arrived in London with the hat 15 Nov. 1515 and this ceremony, at which Warham celebrated mass, was held the following Sunday, 18 Nov. (L. & P., li (i). 1153). 3. 25 Jan. 1516. 4. The remainder of the word is partially concealed by a blot; it appears to have been oddly latinized as ' depum.' 5. These formal receptions of royal personages were remembered long after the Dissolution. 'And when they received the King,' wrote an Elizabethan Yorkshire cleric, ' they received him with great reverence and solemnity at the abbey gates, and carried him up to the high altar, singing a response of the Holy Trinity and ringing of their bells. And when the King had with them made his prayers before the High Altar, then he was carried from thence to the Abbot's lodging,' etc. (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5813, fos. 8b-9). 6. Almost certainly a mistranscription of ' aquebajulo ' holy-water clerk. Aquebajulus is contemporaneously used in the Lincoln visitations to mean parish clerk (Lincoln Record Soc , xxxiii. 47 ; xxxv. 12, 13).

34


ymnum seu cantionum [sic] Te Deum Laudamus incepit, quo dicto ac precibus et oratione pro tali causse [sic] propriis finitis, ditta Regina cum suis recessit ad Cameriam suam. Et in Crastino ad summam missam ditta Regina obtulit aliud Mobile aureum.

(fo. 27) 1516 f. xxi. Venerabilis pater Dominus Richardus Bulle1 Prior Ecclesiae beatae Mariae de Wodebregge

Ultimum vale extulit Animam suam devote Creatori suo et omnium comendans Scilicet vii° Kalendas Februarii viz. xxvito die Mensis Januarii Anno Domini utsupra, a Cujus anima faciem jocundissimam et vultum serenissimum non auertat Deus Almificus, Cui succedit Mr. Thomas Cooke in Canone Bacalaurius et Sacra Scriptura valde circumspectus, quondam hujus Monasterii Canonicus,2 Norvici die veneris penultimo die Mensis Februarii per venerabilem virum Magistrum Dominum Thomam Hare utriusque Juris doctorem et venerabilissimi Patris Domini Ricardi Nix Episcopi Norwicensis Cancellarium3 confirmatus, Cui Deus altissimus preheat bonum, Amen.

f. 22. Gadgrave Boyton Mersh Melle Mersh Fatting Marsh Dayry Mersh Le Frith.

Hoc Anno Die Sancti Stephani4 et nocte sequent! tempore Natalis Domini flumen ab Oceano subortum est immanissimum et profundissimum, quod quidem flumen tune nonnullos Mariscos necnon friscas5 pasturas multas in Angliae partibus submersit, et superundavit praesertim Mariscos nostros6 vocatos Boyton Mershes,7 Melle Mershes,8 Fattyng Marshes9 and the Dayry Marshe and pasture vocat' le Freche,10 ac omnes Mariscos in Villa de Gadgrave11 juxta Orford, aqua ubilicet superundante usque ad Molendinum aquaticum juxta pistrinum12 nostrum.

1. Richard Bull, prior of Woodbridge 1509 - 1516 (V.C.H., Suffolk, ii. 112). 2. The writer probably means (cf. supra, p. 25) a former canon of Butley. The name does not appear on our list, but is probably concealed by an alias, perhaps that of Thomas Bungay, who appears at Butley in 1494 and not later. Two possible Thomas Cookes proceeded B. Can. L. at Cambridge, one in 1505-6, the other in 1513-14 (Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, s.v.). Thomas Cooke was a canon of Woodbridge in 1514 (N.V., p. 134), became Prior, as here related, in 1516, resigned the office on a pension in 1530 and was succeeded by Henry Bassingbourne, another Butley canon (Proc. of Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, ix. 355-6 ; infra, p. 52). For his later career cf. infra, p. 35, n. 8 and p. 58. 3. Thomas Hare, LL.D., rector of various Norfolk livings and Chancellor of Norwich 1501 - 1520 (Blomefield Norfolk, iii. 633). 4. 26 Dec. 5. Friscus, frescus, can mean (i) fallow, uncultivated (2) fresh, as opposed to salt (Medieval Latin Word List, ed. Baxter and Johnson, s.v.) The latter meaning suits the present locality and context. 6. An interesting addition to the list of these disasters. From the early fourteenth century, Butley frequently petitioned to be relieved of burdens on the plea of losses by floods (Arch, your., xc. 185, 226-7, 260). The Priory grounds themselves abutted upon tidal marshes. 7. Two miles south east of the Priory. 8. The reference is not to Mells or Mellis, both inland places in Suffolk, but to some local marsh no longer called by this name. ' Melle,' an occasional form of ' mill' is frequently met with in Suffolk records in this sense. Melle marshes were very possibly those near Butley Mills. 9. Like ' the Dayry Marshe ' infra, this was probably a term peculiar to the house, not a placename sanctioned by general usage ; it is perhaps analogous to the term ' fatting-land,' i.e. used for fatting animals. xo. It will be noted that an apparent alternative ' Frith ' occurs in the margin. ' Frith ' can mean not only a wood but a piece of land sparsely grown with trees, a space between woods, or unused pasture land. ' Le Frith ' occurs somewhat later in Sheriff Hutton parish, N. Yorks. The wooded land called ' the Thrift,' between Butley and Butley Mills, may well represent the corruption of this term and give the clue to the locality. Le Freche is also a convincing form, implying the same as ' friscus ' above—' fresh ' as opposed to ' salt' pasture. 11. The Priory's manor of Gedgrave lay between the Butley River and Orford ; it contained extensive marshes. 12. The writer probably uses this word correctly to mean ' mil},' though it is sometimes substituted in medieval Latin for ' pistrina,' a bakery. He uses ' pistrina ' to mean bakery infra, p. 59.


35

Eodemque Anno die Natalis Domini et die sequenti Audita sum tonitrua et fulgura terribillissima Visa sunt a . . . .* Hoc Anno a festo Sancti Bricii2 usque ad xii. diem Mensis Februarii proximum sequentem Gelu incipiebat frigidissimum perdurans a die Sancti Marcelli papas et Martiris3 nivem 1517 mingebat, que jacuit ac perducavit [sic] usque xiii. diem Mensis Februarij tune proximum sequentis. London' Primo die Maii Juvenum Apprenticiorum ibidem cervicosa Insurreccio fuit.4 [f. 25. Lease of Staverton Park by Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk to the Prior and Convent of Butley, dated 6 February 8 Henry VIII (1517.]5 f. 27. Episcopus Reverendus Pater Dominus Ricardus Nicke Episcopus Norwicen' Norwic'. hie fuit primo die Julii; diuersas billas eidem Patri per dominum Johannem Thef [ord], Orf[ord] et Johannem Norwic' Canonicum hujus Ecclesiae transmissas, adversus aut contra venerabilem Patrem Augustinum hujus loci Priorem.6 f. 28. 1518 hoc anno de novo facta in Muris lapideis cum tribus focis in Coquina nova uno Camino ac cum ijbus fornacibus et Ebulliariis7 necnon cum novo Tecto tarn opere Carpentali quam plumbriali ad maximas expensas Domini Prioris. 1519 Praesentatur ad Vicariam ibidem hoc anno vicesimo die Mensis f. 29. Bawdesey Maii Dominus Johannes Soorar post naturalem mortem Domini vicaria. Walteri Brown8 ultimi vicarii ibidem Anno Domini utsupra . . . . Per manus fratris nostri Woodbrigge Supprioris . . . . qui ad faciles questiones gramaticales rendere nequiebat, et propter ignoranciam hujusmodi a Domino Episcopo et ejus Offiriariis reprobatus fuit, ideo cavere nos oportet quem et qualem praesentamus. Sic MS. 13 or 14 Nov. 1516. 16 Jan. 1517. The famous 'Evil May Day 'riot, begun by the cry of Prentices and Clubs.' Cf. Hall, i. 154-161; Polydore Vergil, p. 242. 5. This lease, not in the Tanner MS., occurs in Le Neve's hand with the reference ' Reg. Butley, fo. 25 ' among the Howard papers now at Arundel and not available for transcription. Cf. Arch..Jour., xv. 206, n. 3. Staverton Park, a wooded area nearly two miles north-west of the Priory, was apparently favoured for the chase. Cf. supra, p. 15, infra, PP- So, 54, 576. This visit, not a formal visitation, seems otherwise unrecorded. John Norwich, a consistent malcontent in subsequent visitations, charged the Prior in 1520 with detaining three pounds which he, Norwich, had borrowed from friends and placed in the Prior's custody (N. V., p. 178). Concerning Orford's adventures cf. supra,p. 10. Thetford, as observed, left Butley to become prior of Thetford in 1519 and subsequently stood on good terms with his old house (Arch. Jour., zc. 204, n. 2). 7. Apparently Kitchen-boilers or coppers, from ' ebullire,' to boil up. 8. An addition to our knowledge of the incumbents of Bawdsey, to which living Butley very commonly presented its own canons. William Wethirfelde was vicar 1503-5 (Arch. Jour., xc. 224). Walter Brown, who, as shown here, died before 20 May 1519, may be identical with Walter Bawdsey. a canon who appears only in the visitations of 1494 and 1504. John Soorar cannot be identical with John Bawdsey, who was still only a deacon in 1526 (N.V., p. 217). ' Thomas Cooke canon regular,' presumably the ex-canon of Butley and retired prior of Woodbridge mentioned supra, was inducted to Bawdsey 18 Feb. 1532-3 on the resignation of'John Scrorer' (Reg. Nix, and the Book of Mandates for Inductions printed in East Anglian, new series, vi. 173). None of these occurs in the catalogue of beneficed Suffolk clergy in Proc. of Suffolk Institute of Archeology, zxii (i).

36

Late Monasticism and the Reformation (fo.27b) 1519

Thomas miseracione divina tituli sanctae Ceciliae sacrosanctae Romance Ecclesiae presbyter Cardinalis, Eboracensis Archiepiscopus Anglian primas et Apostolicae sedis Legatus, ipsiusque Regni Cancellarius necnon sanctissimi Domini nostri Leonis divina providentia decimi dictaeque sedis ad potentissimum et Illustrissimum Principem ac Dominum nostrum Henricum Dei gratia Anglise et Franciae Regem, Universumque ejus Angliae Regnum ac omnes et singulas ipsius Regni provincias, civitates, terras atque loca ilia [sic] subjecta, et alia illi adjacentia etiam de Latere Legatus,1 Dilecto nobis in Christo Augustino priori domus suae [sic] Prioratus de Buttley Ordinis Sancti Augustini Norwicen', salutem in Domino. Super gentes et regna Romanus Pontifex in eminenti Sedis apostolicae specula (disponente Domino) constitutus ut universis Christi fidelibus speculationis officium impendet, (humane repugnante metuta) personaliter singulas Regiones adire non possit nee dictam [sic] gregem diversum sibi creditum curam pastoralis sollicitudinis exercere, singulaque sibi iminentia Negotiaque seipsum efficere, instar illius quilibet omnia clare prespiciat et suae voluntatis beneplacito omitta disponat. Discipulos turn quos elegeret in universum mundum destinavit. Providet interdum ex officii debito sacrosanctse romanae Ecclesiae cardinales ad diversas mundi partes quibus non valet suam presentiam corporalem exhibere (prout necessitates emerserint) destinare Legates, qui in partem huiusmodi sollicitudinis vocati, vices illius supplendo, errata corrigant, aspera in plana convertat [sic],* vepres viciorum extirpent, plantaria virtutum viserant, et commissis sibi subditis salutis incrementa ministrent. Sane nuper cum prefati sanctissimi Domini nostri3 pervenit auditum quod licet in quamplurimis monasteriis, tarn virorum quam Mulierum, hujus Regni Angliae ac locis illi subjectis et aliis illi adjacentibus ab illustrissimis Anglorum Regibus retroactis temporibus fundatis et dotatis religiosarum personarum in eisdem degentium exemplaris vita claverit, Quarum salutaribus monitis et devotis orationibus cultus divinus plurimum auctus et illarum respublica a sanabus hostum erepta, extita et infacta. Attamen a nonullis temporibus citra, Abbatibus et Abbatissis, Prioribus et Priorissis aliisque praesidentibus et Religionis professoribus sub eis degentibus in regno et locis praedictis paulatim vivendi modum et normam relaxantibus, in illis vita exemplaris et regularis observa[n]tia tepuit; adeo ut ipsae personae regulares quae vita moribus et bonis operibus laicis

I. Wolsey's normal array of titles. Cf. N.V., p. 229 ; Wilkins, iii. 683, 700. a. For ' convettant.' The metaphor comes from Isaiah xl. 4 ; Luke iii. 5. 3. Cf. a summons directed by Wolsey in 1526 to the Dean of the College of Stoke (N.V., pp. 229-32). This document similarly recounts previous events, but now asserts that the report of monastic misconduct has come to Wolsey's own bearing.


37

exemplo esse deberent, Dei timore postposito tarn in habitu quam in moribus, vitam minus honestam quam tales deceat ducant in animarum suarum perniciem, divinae majestatis offensam, religionis opprobrium, malumque exemplum et scandalum plurimorum. Quocirca praefatus Sanctissimus Dominus noster (cui ex jure pastoralis incumbit officii prava destruere et honesta plantare) ad reformacionem praemissorum (ne deteriora parturiant) prospicere cupiens, dudum Nobis et Reverendissimo in Christo patri Domino Laurentio Campegio Cardinalibus et suae sanctitatis ad praenotatum potentissimum principem Henricum Angliae et Franciae Regem, Universumque hoc Angliae Regnum et loca praedicta de Latere Legatis, omnia et singula dictorum Regni et locorum monasteria sive loca religiosarum personarum Virorum et Mulierum exempta et non exempta, eorumque praesidentes et personas in capitibus et in membris ac in spiritualibus et temporalibus, per nos vel alios idoneos quos ad id duxerimus deputandos visitandi, illaque prout nobis secundum Deum et canonicas sanctiones ac regularia dictorum . . . . instituta expedire videbitur reformandi, deque statu monasteriorum et sociorum eorundem vitaque et moribus in illis degentium inquirendi, et illos qui criminosi reperti fuerunt iuxta excessuum suorum exigentiam castigandi, corrigendi et puniendi, ac contradictores et rebelles quoscumque per censuras Ecclesiasticas composcendi, per suas litteras sub plumbo Datas Romae apud Sanctum Petrum Anno ab Incarnacione dominica MCCCCCxviii undecimo Kalendas Septembris Pontificatus sui anno sexto conjunctim concessit facultatem et suae sanctitatis litteras legacionis nobis demandatse quae ad praemissa extendit et ampliavit, ac alias nonnullas facultates etiam ampliores circa prsemissa concessit, prout in eisdem litteris de dato praedicto plenius liquet ; enimvero Cum ipse sanctissimus Dominus noster praefatum Dominum Laurentium Cardinalem et Legatum de Latere antedictum ex Regno et Legacione praedictis ex certis causis duxit evocandum quatenus illi prudenti consilio, fide et industria in certis aliis ipsius sanctissimi Domini nostri Sanctaeque Romanae Ecclesise negotiis uti valeat. Idcirco idem sanctissimus Dominus noster ne reformatio prasdicta et alia praemissa salubriter provisu et laudabiliter incepta omittantur, ut nos, dicto Domino Laurentio absente, juxta dictam facultatem procedere et omnia praemissa adimplere valeamus, omnes et singulas facultates in dictis litteris contentas et expressas motu proprio et ex certa scientia ac de apostolice potestatis plenitudine per alias suae sanctitatis sub plumbo litteras dedit et concessit, ac licentiam desuper in omnibus et per omnia impertitus est perinde ac si praedictae priores litterae

38

Late Monasticism and the Reformation et facilitates a principio Thomas Cardinal! et Legato ex Latere soli directae et concessae fuissent, et nos quoad prsemissa omnia et singula ac etiam nonnulla alia in huiusmodi secundis litteris addita et inserta suas sanctitatis et dictse sedis ad Regnum et loca praedicta Legatum de Latere solum et insolidum fecit et constituit et deputavit, prout in eisdem secundis litteris quarum dat' est Romas apud Sanctum Petrum anno Incarnationis dominicae 1519 Quarto Idus Junii pontificatus sui anno septimo plenius continetur. Nos1 itaque Thomas Cardinalis et Legatus de Latere antedictus huiusmodi Legacionis cujus2 pro divina et ipsius sanctissimi Domini nostri ac Sedis praedictae reverentia juxta datam a Deo nobis providentiam sollicite adimplere cupientes, ac tarn ex juris communis dispositione, quam praefati Sanctissimi Domini nostri speciali (ut praefertur) commissione,3 omnia et singula hujus Regni Angliae et locorum prasdictorum Monasteria et loca religiosa exempta et non exempta eorumque pradatos, prsesidentes et ministros visitandi, corrigendi et reformandi potestatem habentes, ac super huiusmodi reformacione (quo melius et efficacius fieri poterit) necnon super nonnullis aliis articulis honorem Dei et4 Religionis Augmentum et religiosarum personarum decorem ac vivendi modum concernentibus, tarn tecum quam aliis5 tu£e religionis praelatis, prioribus et praesidentibus conferre, tractare et deliberare cupientes ; te monemus ac tibi in virtute obedientise firmiter injungendo mandamus, quatenus in crastino Sancti Martini Episcopi et Confessoris proxime future in ffidibus solitse residential nostrse prope Westmonasterium London' Diocesis . . . .6 et compareas super reformacione7 et aliis praemissis tune ibidem lacius proponendis et exponendis nobiscum, tune [sic]s nostro in hac parte commissario uno cum9 pluribus, aliisque abbatibus, prioribus et prassidentibus tune nobiscum ibidem ad eundem finem simili modo atfuturum [sic]10 tracturus deliberaturus, consulturus et conclusurus, ulteriusque facturus quod in hac parte justum videbitur ac jure et racione11 consonum: de diebus vero recepcionis praesentium, Et quid in praemissis decrev[er]is faciendum, nos aut nostrum in hac parte Commissarium12 circa festum

1. The remainder of the summons from this point is also copied in the Register of Reading Abbey (Salisbury Diocesan Registry) fo. 80 v, printed in Chapters of the English Black Monks, iii. 118-19. 2. Reading version : ' legacionis onus.' 3. Reading : ' domini nostri Lecnis pape speciali commissione.' 4. Reading omits ' et.' 9 . Reading : ' vel.' 5. Reading: ' quam cum aliis.' 10. For ' affuturis.' 6. Reading supplies the words ' personaliter assis.' n. Reading: ' et iuri et racioni.' 7. Reading: ' super huiusmodi reformacione.' 12. Reading : ' nos aut nostrum Commissarium.' 8. Reading: ' sive.'

The Register of But ley Prion

(fo. 28) 1520 f. 32

1521 f. 34. Decapitacio Ducis de Buckyngham. per Transmare Dominum Cardinalem.

39

Sanctorum Apostolorum Simonis et Judae proxime futurum debite certifices litteris tuis Patentibus harum seriem continentibus sigillo tuo sigillatis. Datum sub sigillo nostro in sedibus nostris praedictis primo die Mensis Septembris Anno Domini Millesimo Quingentesimo decimo nono. Visitatio Reverendi in Christo Patris Domini Domini Ricardi Episcopi Norwicensis Diocesis per Reverendum in Christo Patrem Dominum Dominum Johannem Episcopum Calcidonensem ac venerabiles viros Nicholaum Carre Legum Doctorem ac Cancellarium Domini Episcopi Norwic', Thomam Cappe Decretorum Doctorem et Robertum Dykar in legibus Baccallarium, viz. Anno Domini utsupra xxx die Mensis Julii.1 Magister Willelmus Roy ton praedicator in Capitulo2 doctor Theologian Et Johannes Remching scriba Domini Episcopi Norwicensis recepit de Domino Priore pro omnibus bonis spiritualibus nostris infra Diocesim Norwicen', viz. de qualibet Libra md. ut consequenter plenius liquet.3 Hoc Anno xvii. die Mensis Maii scilicet die Veneris ante Festum Pentecostes4 circa horam undecimam ante nonam Capite detruncato Edwardus de Stafford Dux de Buckyngham ob suam infelicissimam vitam ac merita5 detestabilia6 emisit spiritum, Cujus animae deus suam misericordiam exhibeat, Amen. Thomas miseracione divina tituli Sanctae Ceciliae Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Presbyter Cardinalis Eboracensis Archi Episcopus Angliae Primas et Apostolicae sedis legatus, Ipsiusque Regni Cancellarius xxix° die Mensis Junii7 iter arripuit transmare ad Calisise villam cum diversis Episcopis et Nonnullis Dominis temporalibus, ad loquendum et tractandum pro pace habenda inter illustrissimum Karolum imperatorem semper Augustum et Christianissimum Francorum Regem Franciscum, et praefatus Reverendissimus Thomas cum suis moram traxhit ibidem ad 8 xxv jtum diem Mensis Novembris tune proximum sequentem.

1. The same names duly appear in the official record (N.V., pp. 177-8). Dr. Nicholas Carre was Chancellor of Norwich 1520-30 ; rector of Rollesby, Norfolk, and of Stirston and Helmingham, Suffolk (Blomefield, Norfolk, iii. 633). Thomas Cappe, LL.D., was official to the Archdeacon of Norwich 1524-35 (ibid., iii. 659) and master of the hospital of St. Giles, Norwich (Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses, i. 57). 2. Cf. N.V., p. 178 : ' post verbum Dei propositum per Magistrum Roiston.' There were two contemporary Cambridge doctors of this surname : Richard Royston, LL.D., Chancellor of Lincoln, d. 1525, and John Reston or Royston who proceeded D.D. 1510-20, was Fellow of St. John's 1520 and Master of Jesus 1546-51 (Venn, Alumni CantaMgienses, s.v. Reston, Royston). The latter seems the more probable. Cf. supra, p. 18 and infra, p. 79. 3. These fees are not mentioned in N.V. 4. The correct date (Hall, i. 226) ; 17 May 1521 was the Friday before Whitsunday. 5- Du Cange gives ' crimen," ' delictum ' as a meaning of ' meritum." 6. A good example of the success of official propaganda. Cf. Hall, loc. cit. Polydore Vergil (pp. 278 seqq.) presents the affair as a personal plot by Wolsey. On the real merits of the case, cf. H. A. L. Fisher, Pol. Hist, of England, v, 236-9. A summary of the depositions is in L. & P., iii (i). 1284. 7- Inaccurate dating, though the copyist may have written ' Junii ' for ' Julii.' Wolsey was dating letters from Westminster at least until 25 July and actually crossed the Channel 2 Aug. (ibid., iii (2). 1439, 1458 ; Chron. Calais, p. 30). Our writer is correct as to the main purpose of the journey and the impressive array of lords and bishops (L. & P., iii (2). 1443 ; Hall, i. 226). 8. Chran. Calais, p. 31 says 27 Nov. 1521 and another account (L. fij? P., iii (2). 1817, p. 779) 28 Nov.

40

Late Monasticism and the Reformation 1522 f. 37

(fo. 28b) 1522

f. 37 Comes Surr'.

Hoc anno videlicet 29 die Mensis Maii1 tune vigilia Ascensionis Christi Angliam venit Illustrissimus ac Metuendissimus Karolus Imperator semper Augustus, eodemque die se Canturiam contulit ibidemque moram traxhit (hoc audito et comperto) suis cum generosis non paucis et antedicto Imperatori Henricus Rex Angliae praepotentissimus Nobilissime obviavit in die Ascensionis, et die sacratissimo Pentecostes tune proximo sequent! ex regia praeparacione Civium Londonarumque sumptuo haud minimo apud Londinum praedictus Imperator magnificentissime et splendidissime receptus est, et circa xxmum diem Mensis Junii proximum sequentem2 iter suum carpsit per mare et Hispaniam versus. Hoc etiam Anno mense Augusti3 per Saracenos et Turcos Rodorum Insula capta est ac confusa. Nichilominus Inhabitantes ibidem fidem suam haud compulsi sunt negare aut Religionem Religiosi suam desere per Dominum Magistralem Turcorum, viz. ubi antea solvebant xii denarior' [sic] ille contentus tribus denariis suas captor[? ae] racione et nomine.4 Hoc etiam anno circa 22 diem Mensis Junii Dominus Thomas Comes de Surray, viz. quidem animosissimus et Belli haud parum Audax, versus Britanniae minoris partes classe cum regia ingente, viris armatis et omnibus aliis rebus ad guerram spectantibus, freta navigans et aequora secans ad villam vocatam Morlay prospere applicuit, ubi ferme a burgensibus et aliis ibidem Officiariis traditus ac pulcris et dolosis verbis datus fuerat (quo comperto), illico eandem villam igne consummi et devastari praefatus Comes jussit, ubi fuit vini et panni linei et aliorum mercimoniorum devastacio maxima, et hasc facta sunt prime die Mensis Julii proximo sequenti.5 Eodem Anno prasfatus Comes iter suum Calisiam versus finem Mensis Julii arripuit6 et carpsit, et circa principium Mensis Augusti7 tune proximi sequentis cum diversis Dominis Militibus et Armigeris,8 cum viris armatis et equis ad Bellum et hastandum

1. Hall (i. 245) says the Emperor crossed from Calais 26 May and met Henry at Dover on Ascention Day (29 May). The reception by the City of London took place 6 June and the two monarchs heard Wolsey sing high mass at St. Paul's on Whitsunday 8 June. Elaborate details of this visit also appear in Rutland Papers (Camden Soc., xxi), pp. 59 seqq. 2. Approximate dating. According to Hall (i. 257) Charles reached Winchester on his return journey 22 June ; Stow (p. 51?) says he sailed from Southampton 6 July. 3. The actual surrender did not occur until Christmas Day 1522. 4. These details may not be strictly accurate, but they reflect the impression, doubtless widespread, made by the liberality of Soliman's terms, which the Grand Master himself ascribed to divine grace. The remaining inhabitants were freed from tribute for five years and their children exempted from serving as Jannissaries. Cf. Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII, i. 594. 5. An accurate and correctly dated account of the Morlaix raid. Cf. Hall, i. 259 ; L. & P., iii (2). 2362 ; Chron. Calais, p. 31. Hall shows that a number of Suffolk gentlemen took part:—Baron Curson, Sir Richard Wingfield, Sir Richard Gerningham, Sir John Cornwallis. 6. He crossed 3-4 Aug. (L. & P., iii (2). 2419). 7. The destructive attack on the Boulonnais and Picardy did not in fact begin until the end of Aug. (Chron. Calais, p. 31 ; L. & P., iii (2). 2540). 8. A list occurs in Chron. Calais, pp. 31-2.


41

non male doctis et instructis etc., versus Picardiam a Calisia suum Castrum ammovit et ibidem moram diversis in locis trahens usque festum omnium Sanctorum1 proximum, agros, Turres et turriculas villas diversas et oppida, orrea cum diversis granis videlicet frumento, ordeo, pisis et fabis faustissima habundantissima devastari igniri et ad terram proferni [sic]2 antedictus jussit Comes3 (nemine interim Picardorum Gallorum aut Francorum resistente non obstante) ; dicti Picardi verba ampullissima ac servicosissima et jactancia plena haud pauca tulerunt promittentes se praelium cum Anglicis et eorum amicis commisisse, scilicet in angulis latibulis et locis montanis per . . . . sepissime apparentes cum fustibus et gladiis [? ne]4que cum campum . . . .5 hoc Anglici Nobiles percipientes ad Angliam reversi sunt cum gaudio, victoria et triumpho nobili. Attamen prsefatus Comes compluribus Anglicis extitit exosus (ut aiunt) prae nimia judiciis severitate legem suam et mandata non observantibus qua de causa plurimi dicebant ac publice et in facie minabant se nunquam cum illo transfretare ab Anglia, secus loqui nescio.6 Eodem Anno xxmo die Mensis Julii7 Dominus et illustrissimus Rex Henricus Octavus magnam et immanem prsestolacionem a suis subditis requirebat et petebat, primo de hoc Monasterio xxli8 per literam suam specialem et sic per totam Angliam de omnibus religiosis de quibusdam xxx11, xlu, c li9 ; de Episcopo Norwicensi M1',10 et postea a toto Clero Angliae petebat prasstamentum, viz. de qualibet libra iiijs. et a laicis de qualibet libra ijs. f. 1538 [sic for 1523] Iter versus Scotiam.

Eodem Anno circa xx. diem Mensis Martii Dominus Thomas de Surray Comes et Anglias Thesaurarius et Dominus Willelmus Compton cum nonnullis aliis generosis armatura fortissima Scotiam versus iter suum carpserunt, ibidem Castella et Castra Turres et Turriolas villas, vicos, oppida et omnes per viam suam domos igne consumpserunt, lapidem super lapide haut dimittentes,11 et nonnullos Scotos vi et armis ceperunt et captures

1. i Nov. In fact the expedition had returned to Calais 14 Oct. (ibid., p. 32 ; L. & P., ii (2). 2614). 2. For ' prosterni.' 3. For a list of the places burnt cf. Chron. Calais, loc. cit. 4. Carelessly written ; ' undique ' is possibly intended. 5. Sic MS. On the French ambushes, cf. Hall, i. 275-6. 6. An interesting and far from improbable addition to the existing accounts. 7. The demands on London appear to have been made as early as July (Hall, i. 258) though the main lists are later. (L. & P., iii (2). 2483). The clearest account of these involved financial affairs of 1522-5 occurs in F.C. Dietz, English Government Finance, 1485 -1558, pp. 93 seqq. 8. In the list of priors liable (L. & P., loc. cit.) occurs ' Butlesaye, £133. 6*. Sd.' The figure £20 is presumably an approximation to the first of the five annual instalments expected. 9. Sound average annual payments. The abbots of Abingdon and Bury were each assessed at a total of £i333- 6*. 8d., which would entail even higher annual instalments. 10. The total assessment upon the Bishop (L. & P., loc. cit.) . 11. From April to Sept. 1523 Surrey so wasted the Borders that, in Wolsey's words, there was left' neither house, fortress, village, tree, cattle, corn, or other succour of man' (Fisher, op. cit., p. 248).

42


Parliamentum.

(fo. 29) f. 1538 [sic for 1523] f. 37

Convocacio Cleri.

duxerunt ac eos diversis in Carceribus mancipaverunt atque plerosque gladiis et fustibus mterfecerunt, scilicet ad usque Mensem Augusti tune proximum sequentem. Et postea Scoti ceperunt contra Anglicos insurgere et sepe pradium se committere cum dicto Comite et suis spopondere et hac de re ille cum suis omnibus non modicum garusiis et valde letus se prseparavit contra eos in Mense Septembris et Mense Octobris tune sequentibus, et dies plerosque prasfixerunt, scilicet nullos observauerunt.1 Hoc Anno 15to die Aprilis Parliamentum fuit apud Westmonasterium et continuatum fuit usque ad Festum Sancti Jacobi Apostoli2 tune proximum sequens ubi laici Regiae Majestati concesserunt iij solidos de libra a summa quadraginta librarum et supra, et a summa xl librarum et infra etc.3 Hoc etiam Anno fuit Cleri Convocacio totius Angliae, viz. vicesimo die Mensis Aprilis4 in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London', scilicet postea Reverendissimus in Christo Pater et Dominus, Dominus Thomas Wulcy Cardinalis et ex latere Legatus ArchiEpiscopus Eboracensis . . . . Necnon totius Anglias Cancellarius se coram Clerum Angliae vocavit Sancti Petri ad Ecclesiam Westmonasterii, scilicet vicesimo octavo die Mensis predicti5 quod Mandatum fuit a Mundi Origine presens adusque, videlicet tractando et communicando Regi nostro maximo pro subsidio solvendo et tradendo. Et tandem in unum totus Clerus congregatus Regi Majestati concesserunt dimidium omnium et singulorum Reddituum, proventuum et possessionum eisdem spectantium a Festo Sancti Michaelis Archangeli Anno Regni Regis Henrici Octavi xiii. usque dictum Festum Sancti Michaelis Archangeli Anno ejusdem Regis xv°, et uno anno integro solvendum per quinque Annos tune proximos sequentes6 ad Festum Purificationis beatas Marian Virginis, semper allocatis racionabili reparacione, resolucione firmarum annuitatum et feodorum Consiliorum, pensionum porcionibus, procurationibus Elemosinis

1. This passage, correct though vague, refers to the attempted recovery of the Scots under Albany, which failed so ridiculously before Wark. Hall (i. 303-4) tells how Albany sent a herald to Surrey offering battle. 2. 25 July. In 1523 the commons actually sat 15 April—21 May ; 10 June—29 July ; 31 July—13 Aug. 3. Sic MS. : a truncated and simplified account of a complicated matter not fully elucidated even by modern authorities. Hali (i. 286-7) has the best contemporary account of the sliding scale granted by the Commons and the additional offer on behalf of the gentry. The return of Suffolk payers of this subsidy is printed in Suffolk in /jgf (Suffolk Green Books, no. x). Only the laity are here included, but about 17,000 payers, yielding about £3,520, are listed (ibid., p. xxiv). 4. The correct date (Pollard, Wolsey, p. 188). 5. Wolsey dissolved the convocation of Canterbury at St. Paul's and called both convocations before him at Westminster Abbey, which was exempt from Warham's jurisdiction. This date 28 April is certainly too early. One authority gives 22 May ; a writ in the Lincoln Register, dated 7 May, gives 2 June for the date of meeting, while another in the Hereford Register, dated 2 May, gives 8 June. This last date is supported by Prior Rivers' own letter of proxy printed infra, p. 44. Cf. on these difficult problems the references given in Pollard, Wolsey, pp. 189-90, and Polydore Vergil, p. 304. 6. This convocation granted the half of one year's income on all benefices, with the allowances, mentioned here, to be paid in five years. The entry in Longland's Register, as printed by Wilkins (iii. 699-700), does not include an assessment-period of two years : our figure xiii may be an error for xiiij.


Iter in Franciam per D. Cardinalem et Dominum Suffolciae.

Rex Danorum.

Papas obitus.

f. 38 Obitus Ducis Norff.

43

et diversis . . . . etc. Et praefata Convocacio durabat usque Festum Sancti Jacobi.1 Hoc etiam Anno circa principium Mensis Augusti2 vir invictissimus Dominus Carolus Suffolciae Dux Strenuissimus Equor Anglicanum vocatum le Narrowgh See validissima et magni fortissima [sic] transiveavit [sic] et transmare navigavit in Franciam per villas, oppida et Castella plurima succend[n]s et devastans ultra Rivariam vocatam the Water of Suine3 infra spatium xxd leucarum Civitatis Parisii,4 et circa 23 diem Mensis Novembris tune proximum sequentem Calisiam suisque omnibus est reversus5 etc. Hoc Anno Mense Junii circa Sancti Joannis Baptistae6 Rex Donorum sua cum Regina a Reverendissimo Domino Cardinal! receptus fuit apud Grenewich et postea a Rege excellentissimo Domino Henrico illustrissimo Octavo cum suis etc., Scilicet Deo gratias moram haud traxhit.7 Hoc Anno Mense Septembris circa festum Exaltacionis Sanctae . . . .8 obiit et expiravit Episcopus Adrianus (Ut quidam . . . .) ex veneno sibi infauste porrecto.9 Et sedes cum vacat ij. Menses et xv dies, Cui succedit Clemens . . . . Natione Floracensi.10 Dominus11 Thomas Howard Dux Norf Nobilissimus 18 die Mensis Maii12 in sui Creatoris Manus spiritum Emisit Castrum apud Framlyngham de qui [sic]13 vitae SUEC tempore cum Rege suo fidelissimus et in pluribus majoralibus actibus faustissimus

1. 25 July. The grant is simply said to come from the convocation of Canterbury assembled at St. Paul's 20 April and continued until 14 Aug. (Wilkins, iii. 699). 2. Suffolk actually landed in Calais 24 Aug. (Chron. Calais, p. 33). 3. It was the Somme which Suffolk crossed. 4. On 27 Oct. Suffolk took Montdidier, rather less than 60 miles from Paris. 5.

Chron. Calais (p. 33) says that Suffolk returned to Calais 14

Dec.

6. The Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 24 June. According to Hall (i. 288) the King and Queen of Denmark landed at Dover 15 June. 7. Sic MS. The Danish King returned to Flanders after only 22 days in England. The phrase ' Deo gratias ' may reflect Christian's bad reputation—' cleane banished out of his realmes . . . . for his crueltie as is written ' (Hall, i. 288). 8. Adrian VI died 14 Sept. 1523, i.e. actually on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. 9. On the sinister but probably unfounded speculations regarding the causes of his death, cf. Brewer, op. at., i. 565 seqq ; Pastor, Hist of the Popes, ix. 216. A statue was erected to his physician ' tanquam patriae liberator!.' 10. Clement VII was actually declared elected 17 Nov., 64 days after Adrian's death and on the fiftieth day from the time the cardinals had entered the conclave (L. & P., iii (2). 3547, 3592). n. This passage ' Dominus . . . . interfuit ' forms an interesting account of the obsequies of a great magnate on the eve of the Reformation. There are two other versions : (i) A transcript by Le Neve in the Howard Papers, printed in Arch. Jour. xc. 220-21 ; a less full and accurate one than the present. (2) The version in T. Martin, History of Thetford, p. 122 ; cf. ante, p. i. Martin's version is headed ' Fol. 38. A° Dni mlxxiiijto A° H. VIII decimo sexto Revdissims in X° pater Thomas Wulsey cardinalis &c. Augustinus Prior.' It thence proceeds, though with one or two minor variations, similarly to the present text. The Duke's Elizabethan descendant Henry Howard relates that 'Againe at the funerall of Thomas Duke of Norfolke, my great Grandfather, so violent a feare surprised all the multitude, being very diligent and attentive to the Sermon, in the Church of Thetford ; as all ran out with haste, leaving the preacher alone in the Pulpit' (A Defensative against the Poyson of Supposed Prophecies, edn. 1620, p. 119 ; ist edn. is 1583). Another elaborate account of the ceremonies at Thetford occurs in Coll. of Arms MS. WB., fos. 82-90. 12. The other authorities give 21 May 1524 (cf. D.N.B. s.v. Howard, Thomas I; G.E.C., Complete Peerage (1936), ix. 615). 13. Martin has ' apud Castrum de Framlyngham, qui vite sue tempore oi regi suo fidelissimus.'

44

Late Monasticism and the Reformation cxtitit. Et 22 die Mensis Junii tune proximo sequent! apud Thetford Monachorum Monasterium honorifficentissime et magnificentissime ejus Corpus humatum fuit presentibus ibidem septem diversis Dominis temporalibus, duodecim Militibus cum pluribus generosis, hoc modo et forma. Prior hujus Monasterii Missam de Sancta Maria circa horam sextam pontificalibus insignitus celebravit Ministrum1 [sic] cum hiis, Domino Dionisio2 suo Canonico ad Epistolam, Domino Willelmo Melleford Priore de Dodenassh3 ad Evangelium, Domino Thoma Cooke de Wodebrigge Priore4 et Domino Johanne Colyn de Thetford Priore5 Canonicorum Capellanis, secundam vero missam de Trinitate celebravit Suffraganeus et Prior de Weymundham6 monachis diversis cum Ministris, tertiam vero pro defunctis Reverendus in Christo pater et Dominus, Dominus . . . . Episcopus Eliensis7 solemnissime celebravit. Cujus Ministri ad missam fuere venerabilis in Christo Pater Augustinus hujus Monasterii prior ad Epistolam mitratus, Ad Evangelium prefatus Suffraganeus, sermocinator ibidem Reverendus in Christo vir Suffraganeus . . . . vocatus Doctor Makerell8 albus canonicus, et Thema ejus fuit, Ecce viat [sic] Leo de Tribu Judse,9 et antedictus Dominus Episcopus Eliensis toti funerali officio interfuit. (fo. 29b) 1523 f 41

Pateat Universis et presantis [sic]10 Quod ego Augustinus prior domus regularis sive prioratus beatae Marias de Buttely ordinis Sancti Augusti [sic] Norwic' Diocesis Dilectis mihi in Christo Religiosis in Christo patris Abbate de Waltham et Prioribus de Elsyng Spetyll, Sanctae Mariae Overy et Sancti Bartholomei Smythfeld Londin', Necon venerabilibus viris Magistris Thomse Larke archidiacono Norwic',11 Johanni Domino Archidiacono

1. Both other versions have ' ministris.' 2. Denis Rychemount or Metcalf, subdeacon at Butley in 1514 and canon to the Dissolution ; vicar of Benhall in 1530 (Arch. Jour., xc. 224). 3. William Melford occurs as a canon of Butley in 1514 and as cellarer in 1520. His name provides a new addition to the list of priors, previously very incomplete (V.C.H., Suffolk, ii. 100). The prior who surrendered the house i Feb. 1525 is called ' Thomas ' in an official document (L. & P., iv (i). 1137) but our writer refers to William Melford as still Prior at the Dissolution (infra, p. 47). 4. Cf. supra, p. 34. $. John Thetford or Colyn, ex-canon of Butley and Prior of Thetford 1519-34 ; Prior of Holy Trinity, Ipswich, IS34-37. Cf. supra, p. 17. 6. The Abbot of Wymondham 1520-26 was John Holt, subsequently (1530-40) Bishop of Lydda (Blomefield, Norfolk, x. 519 ; Handbook of British Chronology, p. 190). 7. Nicholas West, Bishop of Ely, 1515-33. 8. Matthew Mackarell, Abbot of Barlings, who was famed as a preacher and published two volumes of sermons • he was suffragan of York and subsequently of Lincoln as Bishop of Chalcedon (ibid., he. cit.). In 1537 he was executed for complicity in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Cf. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses, i. 61. 9. Ecce vicit leo de tribu Juda (Revelation, v. 5). Martin's version has this correct: the error is obviously that of the copyist. 10. The following is the proxy (procuratorium) of Prior Rivers relating to the legatine convocation of 1523. The first words should read ' pateat universis per praesentes.' This form was used by the black monks for their provincial chapters c. 1370 - 1460, though they subsequently reverted to the earlier custom of addressing the presidents by name (Chapters of the English Black Monks, Hi. 199, but cf. ibid., iii. 120). n. Thomas Larke, archdeacon of Sudbury 1517-22 and archdeacon of Norwich 1522-28 (Le Neve, ii. 481, 492).

The Register of Butley Priory 1

45 2

Suffol', Willelmo Styllyngton Archidiacono Norff', Nicholao Carre3 Legum et Willelmo Cleyburgh4 utriusque juris doctoribus, conjunctim et eorum quibuslibet per se divisim et insolidum, Ita quod non sit melior condicionis [sic]6 occupantis, sed quod unius [sic]6 eorum inceperit, id eorum quilibet Libera [sic]7 prosequi valeat, mediare pariter et Finire, omnibus melioribus via, modo et juris forma quibus melius et efficacius de jure possum, meos veros et legitimos procuratores, actores, factores, negotiorumque meorum gestores et Nuncios speciales ad effectum infrascriptum nomino, ordino, facio et constituo per praesentes, dans et concedens eisdem procuratoribus meis conjunctim et eorum cuilibet per se ut praefertur divisim et insolidum potestatem generalem et mandatum speciale pro me et nomine meo coram Reverendissimo in Christo patre et Domino, Domino Thoma miseracione divina tituli Sanctae Ciceliae Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae presbitero Cardinali, Episcopo, Eboracense Archiepiscopo apostolicae Sedis etiam de Latere Legato, Angliae primate et Cancellario, suis in hac parte locum tenentibus sive Commissariis et Commissario pluribus aut uno in hac parte deputatis sive deputandis, die Lunae8 octavo videlicet die mensis Junii proximo future post datum praesentium in Ecclesia Conventuali exempti Monasterii Sancti Petri Westm' cum continuacione et prorogacione dierum tune sequentium si [sic]9 locorum si oporteat in convocacione prselatorum et Cleri tarn Eboracens' quam Cantuar' provinciarum comparendi ac de et super regularium et secularium personarum Ecclesiasticarum et Cleri utriusque provincial Reformacione eorumque condetendi, uniendi et incedendi modo ad honorem Dei, decus et ornamentum Ecclesiae Anglicanae aliis quoque Articulis hujusmodi reformacionem concernentibus, illis turn ibidem Latius exponendis cum dicto Reverendissimo in Christo Patre Domino Cardinali et Legato a Latere antedicto et cum Reverendissimo in Christo Patre Domino Cantuarien' Archiepiscopo necnon cum praelatis et Clero tarn Eboracen' quam Cantuarien' provinciarum praedictarum tractandi et communicandi, suaque sana Consilia et auxilia super eisdem impendenda atque hiis quae ibidem super regularium et Cleri utriusque provincial Reformacionem 1. John Dowman, LL.B., rector of St. Nicholas Aeon, London, 1506 ; archdeacon of Suffolk 1507-26 ; prebendary of St. Paul's ; d. 1526 (Blomefield, Norfolk, iii. 653). 2. Dr. William Stillington, previously archdeacon of Norwich and Sudbury, collated to archdeaconry of Norfolk 6 April 1522 ; succeeded at date unknown by Thomas Winter, who resigned before i March 1529 (Le Neve, ii. 480, 484, 492). 3. Cf. supra, p. 39, note i. 4. William Clayburgh, LL.D., prebendary of Lincoln and Southwell 1527 ; archdeacon of Worcester 1531 ; will proved 1534 (Le Neve, ii. 174, 186 ; iii. 75, 454). 5. For ' condicio.' Cf. Formulate Anglicanum, p. 351 ; Chapters of the English Black Monks, iii. 120. 6. For ' unus.' 8. The correct day for 1523. 7. For ' libere ' 9. For ' et.'

46


hujusmodi ad honorem Dei et Ecclesise Anglicanae tam dicti Reverendissimi patris Cardinalis et prenominati Cant' Archiepiscopi quam pradatorum et Cleri utriusque provincial predictae com[m]uni deliberacione concedi, statui et ordinari contingent, consentiendi vel alias discentiendi aliumque vel alios procuratorem seu procuratores loco ipsorum et eorum eujuslibet substituendi, et substitutum seu substitutes hujusmodi revocandi, et procuratoris officium in ipsos et eorum quemlibet reassumendi, quotiens et quando eis vel eorum alicui expediens fuerit visum, Et generaliter omnia alia et singula faciendi, exercendi et expediendi, quern [sic]1 prasmissis et circa ea necessaria fuerit seu quomodolibet op[p]ortuna, licet mandatum de se magis exigant speciale quam prxsentibus est expressum, promittens me Ratum, gratum et firmum perpetuo habiturum totum et quicquid per dictos procuratores meos seu eorum aliquem substitutumve aut substituendum ab eisdem seu eorum aliquo in dicta Convocatione Legatina circa premissa prius gestum, actum et exercitum ab eisdem fuerit seu in future fieri contingat sub ypotheca et obligacione omnium bonorum et in ea parte caucionem expono per praesentes. Datum sub sigillo communi dicti prioratus iii° die Mensis Junii Anno Domini MDxxiii0. (fo. 30) 1524 f. 43 Bullae Tenor. (fo. 30b) f. 44 f. 45 Depressio Snape et aliis.

[Version of the text of a Bull of Clement VII dated ' duodecimo Kal. Septembris pontificatus nostri anno primo.'2 It is directed to Wolsey, whom it empowers to visit and reform religious houses and whose legatine powers it enlarges.] [Conclusion of the above Bull.] Hoc Anno die Jovis viz. 19 die Mensis Januarii3 venerabilis Magister Doctor Aldyn,4 Magister Sender5 et Magister Squew6 Reverendissimi in Christo Domini, Domini Thomae Wulcy Cardinalis ac Sanctissimi Papae dementis ex latere Legati Commissarii ad Prioratum sive Ecclesiam beata? Mariae de Snape,7 videlicet post sou's occasum, et dictum Prioratum sive Ecclesiam dissolvere et depressere ac ibidem Priorem et Monachos

1. For ' que in pnemissis.' 2. Printed in full, Wilkins, iii. 703 ; Rymer, Foedera, ziv. 18 and Fiddes, Life of Wolsey (edn. 1724), Collection*, p. 102. 3. Jan. 1525. 4. John Allen (commonly Alyn), LL.D. He became Archbishop of Dublin 1528 and was murdered 1534 in Fitzgerald's rebellion. (D.N.B.) On his unpopular rdle as Wolsey's subordinate cf. Polydore Vergil, pp. 256, 260. 5. Probably one of the several officials named Sanders or Saunders who occur in contemporary statepapers. I do ocuments or in the N. V. not ojbserve him in the pertinent dissolution doc 6. John Skewe or Skewse frequently appears in the statepapers around this date as an assistant of Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. Cf. e.g. L. & P., iv (i). 1728 ; iv (3). 5666. 7. The official records of Wolsey's dissolution of Snape and Dodnash are dated i Feb. 1525. Allen figures prominently in them and his actual visit may, as here stated, have occurred some days earlier (L. & P., iv (i). 1137, nos. 6, 13).


47

scilicet duos1 et omnia bona mobilia dissipavere et diripuere, et omnes terras et redditus ad eandem spectantes et pertinentes et ad laicorum manus (ut fertur) tradidere et ad firmam dimisere. Dodenash. Et ijdo die sequent! venere ad prioratum Sanctae Mariae de Dodenassh et fratrem Willielmum Melford ibidem Priorem2 et unum Canonicum modo praelibato fecerunt. Dehinc in Essex et Cancia et aliis Angliae partibus modo similiter fecerunt ad nostrse religionis obprobrium, scandalum, dessipacionem et ruinam non solum nostra Religionis sed etiam Monachorum, Monacharum ac Monialium quasi per totam Angliam praetextu aedificationis novi magni Collegii Oxonise vocati Cardinalis Collegii,3 et ibidem hoc Anno prioratus sanctse . . . * Canonicorum regularium per prefatum Cardinalem depressus fuit ad annualem redditum per annum M. marcarum . . . . Numerus omnium domorum religiosorum per totam Angliam hoc Anno ut fertur.5 (fo. 31) 1524 Hoc Anno 26 die Mensis Januarii6 Crux Magna cum Crutifixo cadebat in Mane circa horam tertiam Crucifixi Imagine tune f. 45 illesa, pollice vero dextrae Manus parumper fracto, sed magna Crux quasi totaliter fracta et Corona spinosa immitati dirupta, et erecta est alia Crux de Novo sculpta, picta et deaurata in Festo Sanctse Margaretae7 proximo tune sequenti et ideo Deo altissimo gratias infinitas. Hoc Anno extra magnas portas scilicet ex parte Orientali juxta Domus Ypymerarum8 domum et eidem annexa ex antique vocatam Warners Logge9 facta est videlicet Mense Novembris. Circa 20 diem Mensis Augusti10 hoc Anno scilicet Anno Regiarum litterarum Missio Domini 1525 omnibus Anglise Episcopis, et omnibus aliis viris 1. The last recorded visitation of Snape (1520) has the expressions ' Exarninatis priore et confratribus . . . . Et injunctum est priori quod provideat de alio confratre ' (N.V., p. 177). The Ipswich College charter gives the last prior's name as Richard Parker (V.C.H., Suffolk, ii. 80). 2. Cf. supra, p. 44. 3. Snape and Dodnash were transferred in 1528 from Wolsey's Oxford College to his foundation at Ipswich (L. & P., iv (2). 4307).

4. The reference is to St. Frideswide's the priory of Augustinian canons at Oxford. Its revenue, however, wase only 284-8s. od. accoridng to the complete list of the monasteries layd to the Cardinal College in Cotton MS. Cleop. E. 4, printed in Strype, Memovials (edn, 1822), I pt. ii, p.132 This list of foundations devoted to Cardinal College gives a total revenue of £1913- os. 3ld. 5. Sic MS. 6. I.e. 1524-57. 20 July 1525. 8. A quite likely mistranscription of Infirmar' ; the house had been ordered to provide an infirmary in the visitation of 1520 (supra, p. 9). 9. I see no evidence that ' warner ' ever meant ' gatekeeper,' but it is a very common form of ' warrener ' (New En°. Diet., s.v. warner), and two warreners were actually kept by Butley up to the Dissolution (Appendix I. infra). Alternatively, as in the case of Baret's chambers, the building may have been called Warner's Lodge after an individual person who had occupied it. 10. The subsequent account of Wolsey's Amicable Loan and the rebellion it occasioned is substantially accurate, though wrongly dated. The trouble, especially severe in Suffolk where the tax forced clothiers to dismiss their employees (Hall, ii. 42), took place in May 1525, not in August. The remarkable letter from the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk describing the pacification of the rising is dated n May (Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd ser., ii. 3-7) and the Suffolk rebels were pardoned 30 May (Hall, ii. 46).


48

ad partes Suffolciae et alias pro pecunia.

f. 46. Franciae Rex

Pax

Ecclesiasticis quasi per totam Angliam, viz. Episcopo Norvicen' pro Mu, Abbati Sancti Edmundi M. marcis, Priori de Butteley cc marcis, et de Laicis quasi quartam partem omnium bonorum et temporalium mobilium et immobilium1 exigens et requirens regia potestate minaci, et fuit causa Insurreccionis et murmuracionis non parva in villa de Sudburia cum caeteris villis clamentibus in Anglia ut fertur, et circa Octavum diem Mensis Maii proximum sequentem quamobrem Dux Norff' et Dux Suff' missi sunt ad villam praedictam de Sudbury ad sedandum et pacificandum talem insurreccionem pariterque ad cognoscendum huiusmodi Insurreccionis causam, et Responsum viri praedictae villas dederunt quod non ob malignitatem vel ingratitudinem contra Regem, sed propter nimiam paupertatem et exilitatem,2 quas non modico tempore quasi per totam Angliam sustinere ob tales ingentes exacciones. Quapropter ad rehabendum favorem et amorem vulgarem (habito inde salubri Consilio) Rex dimisit ex sua gratia excellentissima pariter et remisit omnibus et tune per totam Angliam extitit gaudium immanissimum etc. Franciscus Strenuissimus et Audacissimus hoc Anno scilicet . . . . die Mensis Martii3 in belli Campo prope Civitatem Mileneseam captus fuit per Dominum Vernandum Imperatoris fratrem et ejusdem Militiarum principem et Burbonise ducem (ut fertur),4 et praelibatus Rex fuit in Custodia carcerali Caroli Nobilissimi Imperatoris usque ad 7um diem Mensis Aprilis tune non proximum sequentem sed Anno sexti5 . . . . Et in praefato bello cecidit interemptus Ricardus de la Poole, qui fuit frater Edmundi de La Poole nuper Comitis Suff'. Inter Angliam et Franciam hoc Anno Scilicet Mense Augusti facta est pro vita utriusque Regis scilicet Angliae et Franciae durante (ut dicitur).6 Allecium Alborum copiosa Multitude hoc Anno fuit Mense Octobris a Festo Sancti Lucae Evangelistae7 per octo dies proximos sequentes . . . . Videlicet in portu de Orford ad hujus Monasterii et hominum dictae villas ac totius Suff relevamen et confortacionem etc.

1. The other authorities say a quarter from the clergy and only a sixth from the laity. 2. Hall's famous anecdote (ii. 43) makes the Suffolk leader John Grene say to the Duke of Norfolk, ' sythe you aske who is our capitain, for soth hys name is Povertie, for he and his cosyn Necessitie, hath brought us too this doyng.' 3. The actual date of Pavia was 24 Feb. 1525, Francis I of France being captured and Richard de la Pole killed. The English court only received information 9 March and the celebration took place in London 11-12 March (Hall, ii. 29-30). 4. The Duke of Bourbon was the Imperialist commander ; the Emperor's brother Ferdinand, who was not present in the field, wrote the announcement of the victory to Henry VIII from Innsbruck (Ellis, op. tit., ist ser., i. 257-8 ; AUgemeine Deutsche Biographic, vi. 634). 5. Sic MS., presumably an interpolation in the original MS ; Francis I was actually released 17 March 1526. 6. On 14 Aug. a truce was signed whereby the French were to pay Henry an annual tribute of 100,000 crowns throughout hi* lifetime. 7. 18 Oct.


49

Hoc anno sequent! fuit sevissima pestilentia quasi per totam Angliam1 nonnullis villis, scilicet in Wodebregge, Orford, Chesylford, Capell, Togton2 etc.

(fo. 31b) 1525 f. 46

1526 Visitatio

Westsomerton. Dominus Thomas

Ventus Terribilissimus hoc Anno viii° die Februarii circa horam quartam in Mane usque ad horam octavam sequentem domos plurimas subruens et substernens, nonnullas Naves submergens, scilicet a le Bay3 usque le temyse ut fertur IX, et infinitas arbores per totam Angliam prosternens. Et hac tempestate orreum Manerii nostri de Westsomerton4 corruit et ad Nihilum redactum est Reverendi in Christo Patris ac Domini, Domini Ricardi Nicke Norwicen' Episcopi ceci existentis6 per unam noctem et diem sequentem duntaxat hospitantis videlicet 26 die Mensis Junii, viz. die Martis6 cum Reverendissimis patribus Suffraganeo Suff',' de Ulmo . . . . Abbate Sancti Benedict!,8 Magistro Doctore Carre Cancellario Norwicen' Diocesis,9 Magistro Thoma Godsalf Registrario10 per totam Norwic' Diocesim Monacho Sancti Benedict! praedicti Sermonem in domo Capitular! Conventu praesentis [sic] in Latina lingua predicante et diet! Albis [sic]11 Capellano, Cujus Thema fuit, florete flores quasi lilium, Ecclesiastic! 39.12 Hoc Anno circa decimum diem Mensis Augusti Orreum nostri Manerii de novo factum fuit; memorandum pro pluribus de dicto Orreo. Orford hujus Ecclesias Canonicus elegans persona13 circa hoc tempus et diem praedictum cum Capacitate sua ibat ad partes occidentales Angliae, ibidem moram trahendo ubi poterit invenire aliquod servitium vel beneficium, associans se cum Domino

1. 'In this wynter [1525-6] was greate death in London ' (Hall, ii. 56). 2. The copyist's error for ' Boyton.' Apart from Woodbridge, seven miles distant, all these places are in the immediate vicinity of Butley. 3. The writer probably means Hollesley Bay. Cf. his other local references, e.g. ' ly Ferry,' ' ly Seler gate,' etc. 4. On the Priory's manor of West Somerton cf. supra, p. 12. 5. An interesting early reference to Nix's blindness. 6. The correct date of a visitation so much less tactfully described by the official records (N.V., pp. 216, teqq.). 7. This title refers to Bishop Underwood (supra, p. 25); he appears infra, p. 57 by name and as ' Suff' et Norf Suffraganeum.' 8. John Sajcot, alias Capon; D.D., Abbot of St. Benet's Hulme (N.V., p. 213) and successively Bishop of Bangor (IS34-9) and Salisbury (1539-57) (D.N.B., s.v. Capon). Q. Cf. supra, p. 39, n. i. 10. Thomas Godsalve, public notary and ' principal registrar ' of the diocese, appears frequently in the N.V. He again emerges in 1535 as a commissioner for the assessment of tenths and reporting from Norwich to Cromwell (L. & P., viii. 414). He witnessed the recantation of heresies by Anthony Yaxley of Rickenhall in 1525 (Eastern Counties Collectanea, p. 4Z). 11. Presumably the copyist's error for 'Abbatis.' 12. Ecclesiasticus, zxxix. 19. This detail is not given in the N.V. 13. Cf. supra, p. 10.

50

f. 47. Orford

(fo. 32). 1526 f. 47. Obitus Domini de Wyllughby.

Laie Monastidsm and the Reformation

Thoma Lambe1 nuper de . . . . Canonicho regular! et parum antea in latrocinio et aliis vitiis enormibus depraehenso in carcere de Melton detenso, juxta quoddam proverbium (Est fuit et erit qui similis similem sibi querit). Deus altissimus illis faustiorem et honestiorem vitam largiatur. Dominus2 Thomas praepotentissrnius Norfolciae Dux hoc Anno 16. die Mensis Septembris fuit hie ad Cenam satis letus et jucundus cum Domino Willelmo Willughby3 et aliis ad Numerum xlvirorum, et die sequente scilicet die Lunse post prandium cum diversis generosis et suis pueris vulpes apud silvam vocatam Scuttegrave Woode4 venans usque ad decimam horam in Nocte. Et post prandium in Crastino ibidem ad supervidendum silvam vocatam Stanerton [sic] Parke,5 Et adhinc ad Salsos Mariscos friscandos apud Hollesley, secum equitantibus pratfato Domino Willughby, Domino Antonio Wyngefeld,6 Domino Augustino hujus Monasterii priore cum aliis generosis et servientibus. Burgensium ibidem diversi riotosae [sic] insurrecciones fecerunt super terras nostras de Gadgrave,7 volentes et prsesumentes habere communiam et ly Purlyng8 infra parochiam de Gadgrave praedicta ; sepes frangerunt et fosse diversae subfodientes [sic] contra Justitiam, contra quos Concilium Jurisconsultum [sic] petendum est ad tales luendum per Priorem de Butteley qui mine est et per successores suos imperpetuum, viz. Anno Papse etc. [sic] die Martis proximo festum post exaltacionis Sanctae Crucis viz. xvto die Mensis Septembris. Hoc Anno 27 die scilicet die Veneris Mensis Octobris circa horam undecimam nocte sequente apud Fratres Augustinenses de Orford suo Creatori Spiritum emisit generosissimus Dominus Willelmus Dominus de Ersby et de Willughby,9 cujus animae propitietur Deus misericordissimus ; Cujus corpus humatum

1. The name does not occur in N.V. ; it is difficult to identify the case with that of John Lammes, though he too was asking to withdraw on health grounds from St. Benet's Hulme in 1532 (N.V., p. 283). 2. The passage ' Dominus . . . . servientibus ' occurs also in the Howard Papers (Arch. .Jour., xc. 221). 3. Cf. infra, n. 9. 4. This name, apparently miscopied infra, p. 54 as Stuttgrove, has not survived, except perhaps in the forms Scotland Heath, Scotland Fens, about a mile S.W. of Butley. 5. Staverton Park which his father had leased, and he himself was shortly to sell, to the Priory (infra, p. 57). 6. Sir Anthony Wingfield of Letheringham, a cousin of the Duke of Suffolk ; knighted for bravery in France, 1513 ; M.P. for Suffolk in the Reformation Parliament; later Vice Chamberlain, Captain of the Guard, member of the Privy Council and Comptroller of the Household ; d. 1552 (D.N.B.). 7. Cf. supra, p. 16. 8. Probably a mistranscription of ' Purley ' or ' Purly,' a form of purlieu (New Eng. Diet., s.v. purlieu). The word was commonly applied to a tract of land on the border of a forest, especially to one disafforested by a new perambulation. Here it might easily apply to land reclaimed from the marshes, which in Gedgrave are extensive. 9. William, eldest son of Sir Christopher Willoughby, inherited the barony of Willoughby de Eresby on the decease of his cousin Joan Welles in 1506. The statement (G.E.C., Complete Peerage (1898), viii. 144-5) that he died ' at HertVetusta, pp. 620-22 ; likely date of probate 1527. Cf. Index Library, xi. 577). The present account bears every mark ford, ? Ufford, 19 Oct. 1525 ' must be incorrect, since he dates his will $ May 1526 (abstract in H. Nicolas, Testo be buried beas\rs evvvtamenta

of accuracy though, we so often, the testtor's whies were not exactly respected. He wills to be buried in th ecollegiate church of Sppiliby and continues I will that a tomb be erected for me and my wife in the College of Spillesby, and another at Meetingham for the late Lord willoughby, Sir Robert that lieth there, my near kinsman.


51

est magno cum honore apud Castellum de Metyngham de ejusdem Patronatu et fundacione,1 in quadam Capella ibidem die Veneris videlicet 16. die Mensis Novembris ante Summum altare videlicet ex parte boriali, ubi jacebat quidam de genero [sic] suo plumbo volutus et coopertus, qui e tumulo suo amotus ad alium locum terra coopertus est.

Regia Moneta.

1527 f. 48

Hoc etiam Anno circa Octavam diem Mensis Septembris regia proclamacione facta per totam Angliam quod regalis Moneta (the ryall, inserted above} curreret ab uno ad alium pro undecim solidis, et Nobilis Moneta pro vii solidis et iiij denariis, et Corona aurea gallicana pro quatuor solidis et iiij d.z; postea vero circa quintum diem Mensis Novembris et secunda regia proclamacione facta per totam Angliam Regalis Moneta curreret pro xis et iij denariis, Nobilis Moneta pro vii solidis et vi d.3; postea facts sunt novse Nobiles Monetse cum imagine Sancti Georgii equitis pro vi s. viii d. et novae Coronae cum semifacie et duabus rosis pro quinque solidis.4 Hoc etiam Anno die Translationis Sancti Thomae Martyris Reverendissimus in Christo Pater Thomas Wulcy Cardinalis etc. honorificentissime Cantuarias receptus est5 ultra Mare versus Franciam usque iter suum arripiens qua de causa Anglise ab aliquo adtunc nesciebatur vel ignotum fuit, Cotidie in Regis Angliae expensis Centum Libras faciens Ad Summam. Et de ultra mare in Angliam revenit 15to die Mensis Septembris proximo sequenti die Martis, moram trahens Dovere vel apud Doveram per duos dies et die dominica cum Angliae Rege fuit etc.6

Johannes Glemham Miles.

Honorabilissima Domina Maria Francorum Regina cum Sponso suo Domino Karolo Suffolchiae Duce hoc Anno xii die Mensis Julii, viz. die Veneris Nocte usque venit ad Buttleiam pluribus cum generosis et generosibus ac moram ibidem traxit usque ad 22 diem Augusti tune proximum sequentem 17° die Julii, viz. die Martis7 equitabant usque Benhale,8 et Aulam de

1. The family had a close connection with the College of Mettingham, which had been moved into the castle there in 1394. The ancestor removed to make room for the newcomer was possibly Robert Lord Willoughby de Eresby, who died in 1452 leaving a will directing his burial to be at Mettingham (G.E.C., op. cit., viii. 142). 2. A text of this or a very similar proclamation survives, dated 22 Aug. 1526. It valued the royal at n/- and the noble at 7/4t/. (R. Steele, Catalogue of Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, no. 104). 3. The text of the proclamation of 5 Nov. has survived ; this values the sovereign at 22/6d., the royal at i l / j d . , and the angel noble at 7/6:t Richard Webb was reported to More (as Lord Chancellor) for scattering "pestilent" books in the streets and leaving them on doorsteps. See T. More, The Confutation ofTyndalc'sA nsu>ei; Complete Works, Yale edition, viii, pt. 2, pp. 813-15. Webb was later one of Foxe's informants; see K.G. Powell, "The Beginnings of Protestantism", p. 143.

116


in 1551 the appointment of the Zurich-trained Hooper to the new see of Gloucester, followed by his vigorous assault upon a parish clergy as yet ignorant of the new biblical theology, and in many cases of the most basic documents of Christianity. Despite his angular disciplinary zeal, Hooper maintained good relations with the civic authorities of Gloucester and also with the common people, who gathered in great numbers to deplore his execution for heresy.54 Regarding the role of the great port of Bristol as a gateway to this region, caution might be advisable until we know more, if only because Bristol traded almost wholly with Catholic countries. It might prove more fruitful to examine the purely English connections of merchants, tradesmen and craftsmen in Bristol, and to associate Gloucestershire in general with its landward neighbours Wiltshire and Berkshire, which, after the surrender of Dorset in 1541 to the new diocese of Bristol, remained to form that of Salisbury.55 Berkshire reached up into the Thames Valley, through which it may have received it« main stimulus from London and the south east, as it had done in the days of Lollard missionising. By the same token Berkshire touched Oxford, where the new religion became strong around the mid century. Yet again, both Wiltshire and Berkshire resembled Gloucestershire in their dependence upon the clothiers, whose mobility and social coherence helped them to propagate Reformation doctrines. The activism of this otherwise neglected area has been usefully chronicled by Mr I.T. Shield in an unpublished thesis of 1960, which deserves more attention than it has received. Not a few of the grandchildren of the pious west-country builders, patrons and parishioners of "wool-churches" embraced Protestant ideas without waiting for safe times. Apart from the Gloucestershire martyrs, eleven other leaders suffered execution at Windsor, Salisbury, Devizes and at the productive cloth-town of Bradford on Avon. Under Mary some seven more burnings followed at Salisbury, Collingbourne and the former Lollard metropolis of Newbury.56 One of these latter victims was Julins [sic] Palmer, the schoolmaster at Reading and a former fellow of Magdalen, that notably Protestant college in Edwardian Oxford. As befitted this career, Palmer's views appear exceptionally humane for that day, since he maintained that "no man ought to be put to death for matter of religion".57 Even the cathedral city of Salisbury did not lack a fairly numerous group of Protestants. When the diocesan chancellor narrowly predeceased Queen Mary, considerable numbers of people were awaiting examination 54

F.D. Price, "Gloucester Diocese under Bishop Hooper", Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Ix (1939), p. 147. 55 The subsequent passage is largely derived from I.T. Shield (note 36 above). 56 Ibid., pp. 211-24. On Newbury, see note 37, above. 57 On Palmer, see Shield, "Reformation in the Diocese of Salisbury", pp. 213-33 passim; Narratives (note 14, above), pp. 85-131.


117

by him on charges of heresy. In fact certain of those in prison at Salisbury were not released by the Elizabethan government until 31 December 1558.58 Apart from Bristol, Gloucestershire, Coventry and a few lesser places in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, religious changes came very gradually in the western Midlands and along the Welsh Marches. In Coventry, it is true, the new beliefs vigorously invaded even the ruling civic hierarchy and occasioned some martyrdoms, together with the expulsion and replacement of a heretical mayor by the Marian government.39 Once a city of demonstrative piety, yet also an important Lollard centre, Coventry always held great importance for the Reformers. Writing to Bullinger in July 1560, Thomas Lever recalled it as a place where there had always been "great numbers zealous for the evangelical truth". He then describes the burnings and banishments. Returning there shortly after Elizabeth's accession, Lever had found "that vast numbers in this place were in the habit of frequenting the public preaching the Gospel", and so he had consented to settle in Coventry with his family and to serve as one of its preachers.60 It can be safely assumed that this marked propensity was not suddenly created between Elizabeth's accession and July 1560. In other parts of Warwickshire the cautious Protestants were probably numerous, at all events among the people who appear here as substantial testators. An analysis of about 600 Warwickshire wills proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury shows that during the reign of Edward VI the number in that well-off class, who deliberately omitted the hitherto almost universal formulae indicating saint-worship, exceeded the traditionalist Catholic wills by nearly three to one. Naturally, under the Marian reaction many such testators nervously reverted to the traditional forms, yet even then the number of traditional wills does not much exceed that of the Protestant type.61 While the Tudor religious history of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire has not yet been exhaustively investigated, it has been shown that the literary and devotional culture of that region remained on the whole conservative and slow-moving until and beyond the accession of Elizabeth.62 Certainly, however, some locally sensitive enquiries need to be conducted within such areas, which were by no means homogeneous in spirit. So far, for example, we have been content to regard Lichfield as a >K

Acts of the Privy Council, vii, pp. 34-35. '•' VCH, Warwickshire, iii (1908), pp. 33-34 gives main references. lio H. Robinson (ed.), The Zurich tetters (Parker Society, 1842), pp. 86-87. ''' This survey was made by a research student some years ago; it has not yet been checked or printed. ''-' For this region see I mogen Luxton, "The Reformation and Popular Culture", Heal and O'Day (eds), Church and Society in England (note 4, above), pp. 57-77.

118


quiet, backward-looking cathedral city,63 yet to stage a local revision one need go no further than Foxe's Acts and Monuments, supported by items from his manuscript collection now in British Library, MS Harley 421. The more spectacular episodes occurred at Lichfield in the reign of Mary: they affected not only the population of the city but a number of people in the neighbouring places, especially within the nearby northern tip of Warwickshire. As usual, a local persecution reveals the facts.64 Ralph Baines, a Catholic exile under Edward VI and a professor of Hebrew at Paris, returned to England at the accession of Mary and in November 1554 was consecrated as bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Along with his chancellor Anthony Draycot - another energetic Marian regarded by Foxe as notably cruel - Bishop Baines took strong action in September 1556 by compelling various Lichfield people to do penance as heretics. Joyce Lewis, daughter of a squire at Tixall and wife of another at Mancetter, refused. She was spared for a year, but only to be condemned and burned at Lichfield in September 1557. At her execution many members of the large crowd joined in drinking with her and showing other marked signs of admiration. There and then her numerous backers joined in open prayers for the abolition of the mass and "papistry". Even the officiating sheriff, Nicholas Bird, cried "Amen" with the rest, while an unsympathetic priest compiled a list of the main demonstrators, many of whom (including Bird) were afterwards arrested and forced to do public penance. From the records of the transactions we derive the actual names of about sixty local Protestants, mostly from Lichfield itself. The other local martyr also came from the gentry. He was Robert Glover, who took his M.A. at Cambridge and inherited considerable lands at Baxterly and elsewhere. Having been examined at length by Bishop Baines at both Lichfield and Coventry, he was burned at the latter in September 1555. His younger brothers John and William Glover both suffered severe persecution; John, well known to Foxe, being an introspective Puritan who often despaired of his own salvation. Foxe also observes that John Glover had become the chief spiritual adviser to the martyr Joyce Lewis. Another member of this group was Latimer's Swiss-born secretary Augustine Bernher, who comforted Robert Glover on the eve of his execution and accompanied Mrs Lewis on the way to the stake. Yet another friend of the Glovers was that well-known propagandist Thomas Becon, who wrote a first-hand account63 of early Protestantism in Warwickshire, 63 The best background-account is in P. Heath, "Staffordshire Towns and the Reformation", North Staffordshire Journal of Field Studies, xix (1979), pp. 1-21. (i4 The subsequent passage is based upon Foxe, A &? M., viii, pp. 255-56,401-5,429. Compare BL, MS Harley, fos 69, 73, 78. Joyce Lewis, Robert Glover, Laurence Saunders, Anthony Draycot, Augustine Bernher and Bishop Baines are all in the Dictionary of National Biography. The detail on the Glover family is mainly in Foxe, A. &? M., vii, pp. 384-402. Baines and Draycot were active in the case of the blind martyr of Derby, Joan Waste (Foxe,/I. fcf M., viii, pp. 247-50).


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Staffordshire and Derbyshire, which in regard to religious progress he graded in that order.65 Foxe explains that behind the whole group there stood the major missionary and martyr Laurence Saunders, the original inspirer of Joyce Lewis, a close associate of the Glovers and in his last days the author of a long letter addressed "To the professors of the Gospel and true doctrine of our Saviour Jesus Christ in the town of Lichfield".66 Under Edward VI Saunders had in fact been employed as a Reader in Lichfield Cathedral. Further back still, Dr John Old, translator of the Paraphrases of Erasmus and chaplain to Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers (d. 1558), had survived charges of heresy during the last years of Henry VIII and had retired to Staffordshire, where he entertained Thomas Becon and Robert Wisdom. Having briefly served as a canon at both Lichfield (1551) and Hereford (1552), Old fled in 1554 to Frankfurt. 67 Despite all these local personalities and activities, the materials at present available show scarcely any evidence of Protestant confederacies in the Staffordshire towns, apart from Lichfield. The annals of early Protestantism in Shropshire are much slighter, though as early as May 1528 Richard Cotton, curate of Atcham near Shrewsbury, abjured his heresies in Lichfield Cathedral.68 He had been accused of reading Lutheran books and holding frequent disputations and conversations with disciples of the Lutheran sect "and mainly with a certain George Constantine in the towns of Whitchurch and Atcham". This reference is to Tyndale's well-known agent, who at Antwerp had been assisting the Reformer to set forth his edition of the New Testament and to prepare tracts for despatch to England. After further journeys to and from Antwerp, Constantine was caught and imprisoned in 1530 by the Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More. While it is of interest to see Constantine operating so far from his usual spheres of activity in the south east, we cannot suppose that he made much impact on the staid clergy of the west Midlands, where even towns such as Shrewsbury and Hereford show so little evidence of religious change. There remained local differences. Unlike rural Worcestershire, the city of Worcester had its early Protestants (

" Thomas Becon, The Jewel of Joy, J. Ayre (ed.), The Catechism of Thomas Becon, etc. (Parker Society, 1844), pp. 418-76. Wi E. Bickersteth (ed.), Letters of the Martyrs (note 15 above), p. 39. Note also his letter to the Glovers in Foxe, A. £f? M., vi. p. 635. (i ~ John Old, an educated priest who took part in the translation of Erasmus's Paraphrases, sheltered Thomas Becon and Robert Wisdom in 1543. As chaplain to Lord Ferrers, he probably converted his master's son, Richard Devereux. Summoned by the Privy Council in 1546, he temporised, but then held benefices under Edward VI, being a canon of Hereford before fleeing to Frankfurt in 1554. The Dictionary of National Biography account is corrected in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xxi (1946), p. 83. "8 J. Fines. "A Incident of the Reformation in Shropshire", Transactions of the Shropshire A rchaelogical Society, 1 vii (1961 -64), pp. 166-8; C. Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire tnt^tf 7 ahnvf^ nn 7fi—7Q orivf>« fnrfhpr rpfiprf nrf>« r>n hf»rp«v in thf rlir>rf»«f> nf I irhfiplrl

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and at no stage can be regarded as a stronghold of Catholicism.69 By contrast, from a denunciatory letter written by Bishop Scory in 1561,70 it emerges that the clergy and people of Hereford were still offering open resistance to the new Anglican Settlement: this must have been one of the English towns least impressed by Reformation propaganda. Meanwhile across the Welsh border the initial barriers against the Reformation look even more formidable: bad communications, a relative lack of towns, a poorly educated parish clergy, an almost total lack of printed books in the Welsh language and a suspicion of religious ideas mediated through England.71 Over and beyond these factors, the case of Wales differed radically from that of any English region. Its rich and still largely oral poetic tradition had many champions and practitioners even after the disappearance of those former patrons, the heads of religious houses. Moreover some educated Welshmen, such as Sir John Price and William Salesbury, keenly admired Erasmus: they backed concepts of biblical humanism and church reform coming from that source rather than from Luther. They managed to attract some Welsh disciples emancipated from mere peasant conservatism, from fear of clerical persecution and even from advanced Protestant theology. In 1538 and 1542 at least two of the Welsh bishops ordered their clergy to administer religious instruction in the vernacular, both Welsh and English, while in 1551 Salesbury took an important step by publishing his Welsh translations of the scriptural passages included in the Anglican Prayer Book of 1549. A few poets even wrote in that language in order to promote Protestant beliefs. Conversely, though most Welshmen came to terms with the Elizabethan government, a considerable body of Catholic literature arose from Welsh recusants during the last decade of the century.72 However debatable some of Dr Haigh's general theories may appear, it would be difficult to overpraise his authoritative work on the Reformation in Lancashire: it remains the most comprehensive and scholarly survey of any English region in Tudor times.73 He describes a shire largely isolated between the Pennines and the Irish Sea. It contained a high proportion of 69

A.D. Dyer, The City of Worcester in the Sixteenth Century (Leicester, 1973), pp. 237-39. Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, 1547-1580, p. 183, no. 24; compare M.D. Lobel (ed.), Historic Towns of the British Isles (London, 1969), i, p. 9. 71 My brief comments on Wales are based on three works by Glanmor Williams, Welsh Reformation Essays (Cardiff, 1967); "Wales and the Reformation", Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1966, pt. i), pp. 108-33; "Religion and Welsh Literature in the Age of the Reformation", Proceedings of the British Academy, Ixix (1983), pp. 371-408. Given more space, one would like to add here the revealing story of the Welsh fisherman-martyr Rawlins White (Foxe, A.fcfAl.vii, pp. 28-33). 72 G. Williams "Religion and Welsh Literature", pp. 383-89. 73 C. Haigh, Reformation and Resistance (note 12, above); for Bradford and Marsh see ibid. ,ch. 1012 passim; for Hurst, ibid., pp. 85,172-73,187-92,208; for Holland, ibid., pp. 46,50,161,190,193. On reputed immorality, ibid., index s.v., and on traditional piety, ch. 5, 11, 12. 70


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uncultivated land, especially in the northern areas, with their wild, spacious fields, moors and mosses. Apart from the south-eastern places around Manchester, it was then industrially underdeveloped, seldom visited by the great, and managed by the conservative Stanleys, earls of Derby, not by the Council in the North. Lancashire was then on the way to nowhere of great consequence - apart from Ireland. Many enterprising young people went away to work in London and seldom returned. Under Edward VI two devoted Protestant clerics, born Lancastrians and destined to martyrdom, conducted preaching tours. John Bradford visited Manchester, Ashton under Lyne, Prestwich, Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Eccles, Middleton, Radcliffe and Liverpool. George Marsh is said to have visited Deane, Eccles, Bolton, Bury and many other parts of the diocese of Chester.74 Judging from this list they probably made little impact outside a radius of eight or ten miles from the centre of Manchester. They and the few lay zealots, like Geoffrey Hurst and Roger Holland/3 found an exceptionally resistant clergy and people, with a reputation for rough manners and licentiousness. Many were prepared to denounce even local heretics, yet few appreciated theological issues. A number made wills attempting to combine Lutheran Justification by Faith with saint-worship and other Catholic principles.76 This primitive conservatism lingered until the advent of Jesuits and seminary priests during Elizabeth's later years, by which time Puritanism was also initiating that process whereby Lancashire became a museum of Protestant sects as well as the most heavily Catholic county of the realm.77 East of the Pennines we find this intensely provincial history by no means closely mirrored. Though late Elizabethan Yorkshire preserved several limited Catholic enclaves, its social and economic situation had long differed from the Lancashire model.78 It had maintained direct sea-going contacts with the Continent for centuries. Alongside a few advanced squires and clerics, Yorkshire developed some major pockets of early Protestantism, as at Hull, Leeds and Halifax, while even conservative York did not wholly lack devotees, some of them from continental backgrounds.79 In the far south west of England, modern research is indicating situations more varied than that impression of uniform religious reaction 74

Victoria County History, Lancashire, ii, pp. 47-49. " See note 73, above. 7(1 Haigh, Reformation and Resistance, p. 194. On the Catholic resistance to Elizabeth, ibid., ch. 14-19. 77 The modern religious history of the county is well summarised by W.A. Shaw in VCH Lancashire, ii, pp 68-96. ™ Dickens, Lollards and Protestants (note 6, above), pp. 1-7). 79 Ibid., index s.v. Halifax, Hull, Leeds, Beverley; M. Claire Cross, "The Development of Protestantism in Leeds and Hull, 1520-1640: The Evidence from Wills", Northern History, xviii (1982), pp. 230-38; eadem, "Parochial Structure and the Dissemination of Protestantism ... A Tale of Two Cities", D. Baker (ed.), Studies in Church History, xvi (London, 1979), pp. 269-78.

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one would derive from Frances Rose-Troup's classic narrative, The Western Rebellion of 1549. By far the most detailed analysis of religious change among the people is that by Dr Robert Whiting, who concludes that the Henrician and Edwardian changes rapidly shattered the old pieties, and that modern historians have indeed exaggerated the elements of religious resistance in mid-Tudor Devon and Cornwall. While Catholicism revived only with the coming of the seminarists, the general popularising of Anglicanism also occured during the reign of Elizabeth.80 Though the majority of the western rebels doubtless followed their priests in demanding a return in religion to the last years of Henry VIII - though not to the Papal Supremacy - the old label "Prayer Book Rebellion" ignores a welldocumented complex of secular discontents in the south west. Professor Youings has recently displayed the striking elements of a class-war, though one directed especially against the Carews and other families identified with the entire new order in both church and state. Only a few gentryjoined the rebels, some like the Pomeroys figuring as staunch Catholics even while they were organising extensive purchases of secularised chantry lands. Confronted by the rebel host, the civic leaders of Exeter, divided in religion, stood wholly and consistently united in their determination to maintain the defence of their city. Everywhere economic motives were openly displayed by the rebels, who resented the pressure of inflation and detested the polltax recently imposed upon sheep and woollen cloth.81 Yet another economic element with political and religious overtones lay in the near future. In the later years of Mary, the sea-going gentry of those counties, led by the Killigrews, began their long history of piracy and war directed against the trade of Portugal and Spain. The now familiar combination of maritime agression and Protestantism had already come to birth, long before the exploits of Hawkins and Drake.82 That Cornwall, still largely Celticspeaking, must be classed among the slower movers goes without saying, yet any claim that it was uniformly Catholic and "medieval" until after 1558 would remain a simplification. It can be challenged by several references to Protestant opinion, not least by that oddly revealing anecdote told by the Cornish antiquary Richard Carew.83 In 1548 the boys of Bodmin School divided themselves into two fighting factions, called the Old Religion and 80

R. Whiting, The Reformation in the South-West of England (unpublished Exeter Ph.D. thesis, 1977). Note especially pp. 293-8, "The Impact of the Reformation". The Western Rebellion of 1549 (London, 1913) nevertheless remains a mine of information. A.L. Rowse based upon it an excellent account in Tudor Cornwall (London, 1941), ch. 11. 81 The social-economic aspects are ably discussed in Joyce Youings, "The South-Western Rebellion of 1549", Southern History, i (1979), pp. 99-122. 82 On Cornish Protestantism and the activities of the seamen, see Rowse, Tudor Cornwall, ch. 12, 15. 83 F.E. Halliday (ed.), Richard Carew of Antony: The Survey of Cornwall (London, 1953), pp. 196-97. Carew first published the work in 1602.


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the New Religon. With unchanging membership and under two captains, they carried this partisanship into all their activities. The climax arived when one of them converted a candlestick into a gun, which he charged and fired, killing a calf. Whereupon, concludes our author, "the owner complained, the master whipped and the division ended". Such an event could scarcely have occurred had not adult religious partisanships already existed at Bodmin, which in the following year was to furnish many rebels. Through discoveries and eliminations we are now close to defining the heartland of the English Reformation, the area wherein society was deeply permeated by Protestant doctrines before the accession of Elizabeth. It should certainly not be envisaged as consisting merely of London and Kent: rather should we think in terms of a great crescent running from Norwich down to Hove and beyond. Its most intensive sections were Suffolk, Essex, London and Kent. Despite the strength of Protestantism in Norwich and the long tally of martyrs in East Sussex, the two extremities of this crescent may have been somewhat less intensively involved. Yet in addition a western offshoot ran up the Thames Valley embracing not only the old Lollard centres in Buckinghamshire but also places in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, thus linking the crescent with the Protestant communities in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. The Thames Valley has not yet been fully investigated, but some plain evidence was recorded by the Princess Elizabeth's custodian Sir Henry Bedingfield, who made direct enquiries about the local religious situation when in May 1554 he conducted his charge on a leisurely journey from the Tower of London to Woodstock.84 These enquiries Bedingfield was bound to make, since one of his main functions lay in preventing Protestants and other disaffected persons from communicating with the popular princess, whom he shows to have been besieged by fervent good wishes and gifts everywhere along the route: at Eton, Wycombe, Wheatley, Stanton St John, Islip and Kidlington. He considered that while the Oxfordshire men were reliable,85 those between London and that county "were not good and whole in matters of religion": they firmly backed the former abolition of papal authority, though otherwise they showed themselves as loyal subjects. At Wooburn in Buckinghamshire the party was shown the way by one Christopher Cooke, a husbandman whom Sir Henry found "a very Protestant". Cooke soon divulged that "the most part" of the people there and at Wycombe were also of the same opinion, having been encouraged by Francis Russell - soon to become second earl of Bedford - "and certayn other gentlemen off his secte".8b Now about twenty-seven years of age, M

BL, MS Add. 34563, ed. C.R. Manning, Norfolk Archaeology, iv (1855), p. 133-231. Note in this context A.V. Woodman, "The Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Rising of 1549", Oxoniensia, xxii (1957), pp. 78-84. Ht> Manning, Norfolk Archaeology, p. 150. The derogatory term "sect" comes of course from Bedingfield himself. 85

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Francis resided at Amersham and had actually served as a remarkably youthful Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire in 1545 and 1547. Imbibing Protestantism since his early days at Cambridge, he became friendly with many notorious adherents of that persuasion, including Edward Underbill, John Bradford and Thomas Becon.87 Detained briefly in the Fleet prison on Mary's accession, Francis covertly admired the rebel Wyatt. He inherited his father's vast estates in 1555, including Chenies in Buckinghamshire and Woburn Abbey, not far distant in Bedfordshire; but he immediately gained permission to travel abroad, visiting Zurich and gaining the friendship of Bullinger. Undoubtedly mid-Thames Protestantism owed not a little to this powerful figure, who represented so great an expansion of the Russell heritage. Yet there were older local roots, especially the strong Lollard tradition repressed by Longland not many years earlier. This doubtless connects with the popular acclaim received by John Knox, when he boldly continued to preach at Amersham for some time after Mary's accession.88 The few remaining districts of the south east appear to have been far less affected than those already mentioned: for example, the inland areas of the diocese of Winchester, comprising most of Hampshire and Surrey, where, in the depleted episcopal records, little beyond a sparse succession of heretics and martyrs may be documented from 1530 onward.89 So much for our geographical survey, which has said little about the relatively undisputed areas, such as London and Kent at the Protestant extreme, or conversely those little-affected north-western counties, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Westmorland and Cumberland, which seem even more isolated than Lancashire itself. It need scarcely be added that such a survey of early Protestant expansion would achieve more significance were it accompanied by an objective survey of Catholicism among the English people during this same period, c. 1530-58. In what senses was the old religion developing under the stresses of the Henrician and Edwardian state reformations? Was Catholic belief and observance in temporary decay? Had it fallen into the danger implied by Thomas More at his trial: the deprivation of its international

87 On Francis Russeii and his Protestant associates, such as Becon, Bradford and Underhill, see Garrett (note 14 above), pp. 275-77; Foxe,/l. fcf M., vi, p. 537; vii, pp. 218-19. For Lord Russell's standing among them see Bradford's letter, The Letters of the Martyrs (note 15, above), pp. 213-15; Narratives (note 15, above), pp. 146-46. 88 On Knox's mission see note 47, above. 89 R.A. Houlbrooke, Church Courts (note 9, above) has much information on the conservative diocese of Winchester; see also VCH, Hampshire, ii, pp. 66-75. On the stubborn citizens of Winchester, note Bishop Home's letter of January 1562 in State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, xxi, no. 7. The main Protestant hero is Archdeacon John Philpot (Foxe,/4.fc?M., vi, 396ff; vii, pp. 605-714; viii, pp. 171-73), and the horror story that of Thomas Bembridge (A. &f M., viii, pp. 490-92; Acts of the Privy Council, vii, p. 361).


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sustenance?90 Did the people "of both religions" really "detest the Pope", as the Venetian envoy Daniel Barbaro, a future Patriarch of Aquileia, reported from England in 1551?91 Did the hapless Mary Tudor succeed in fusing Spanish Inquisition with Roman papacy in the popular mind? How do we explain the collapse in 1559 of the hitherto conservative parish clergy? Why, apart from crass self-interest, did the great majority of them conform so readily to the Elizabethan Settlement? On these mid Tudor Catholic problems the evidence may prove somewhat rarefied, yet it seems strange that so very few historians have seriously attempted to explore in close detail this tract of religious history, the importance of which now seems so obvious.92

IV. Continuing Research: The Study of Wills Can we hope to extend our present imprecise notions as to the relative strengths of the Protestant and non-Protestant populations at the various stages of the period 1530-58, and in particular counties and towns? Here our only hope of progress seeems to lie in a mass study of the many thousands of contemporary wills still extant in ecclesiastical archives and probate registries. Already begun in certain places, this task needs to be pursued with caution, and without the expectation that refined statistics will emerge. Yet provided they are used in considerable numbers, wills seem broadly acceptable as indicating trends of opinion. While individual testators quite frequently outline Protestant doctrines or give other direct evidence of religious beliefs, a mass survey must attach special importance to the pious preambles with which almost all wills of the period commence. Traditional Catholic wills begin with the testator leaving his soul to the company of the saints in heaven, while Protestant-type wills naturally discard this practice and show the testator bequeathing his soul to God or to Christ. In view of the still huge popularity of the saint-cults on the eve of the Reformation, a real significance can be attached to this differentiation, even though we certainly cannot presume that every will corresponds precisely with the personal religious standpoint of the testator. It is known that parish priests and notaries often gave advice on such points. The former, and perhaps most of the latter, were people of conservative views, il(l I refer to More's declaration at his trial, R.W. Chambers; Thomas More (Peregrine edn., 1963), pp. 325-26. •" Calendar of State Papers, Venice, v, p. 346. !IL> The arguments for a strong, continuous Catholic survival are well put by C. Haigh, "The Continuity of Catholicism in the English Reformation", Past and Present, xciii (1981), pp. 37-69. This view is supported by J.J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and the English People (see note 1, above), ch. 7. On spontaneous revival under Mary, see D.M. Loades, The Reign of Mary Tudor (London, 1979), pp. 351-52).

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and if their pressures did in fact distort the picture, this would be by enhancing the prevalence of traditionalist, Catholic wills. Of course, a much stronger influence in the same direction must spring from the fact that most testators were elderly people, since it is certain that the new doctrines appealed far less to them than to their younger contemporaries.93 Again, it seems likely that Tudor testators, most of whom made their wills in the close anticipation of death, acted out of conscience. Whatever prohibitions may have operated back in 1530 to menace the validity of Protestant wills,94 the government of Edward VI does not seem to have seriously threatened to disqualify Catholic wills. Moreover, poor peasants and craftsmen seldom made formal wills: our testators were mostly people of some standing, likely to have their own ideas, well able to find a congenial notary, and in short quite likely to resist manipulation in either direction. All these factors considered, it would seem defensible to use wills in the mass with reasonable confidence that they will roughly indicate trends of opinion in their various localities. Yet for the above reasons they should by no means exaggerate the strength of Protestant opinion. The fact that so many come from the middling groups of society should not greatly disturb the balance, since Protestantism cannot possibly be dismissed as a middle-class phenomenon.95 Thirty years ago, after an already long acquaintanceship with the great collections of manuscript wills at York, I advocated the examination of wills under these restricted assumptions, and with the proviso that we should at all costs avoid presenting the results with statistical pedantry.96 Since then a number of scholars have pursued such enquiries in regard to various counties and towns, though classifying them under somewhat differing schemes. It has now become possible to make a provisional statement on the results so far obtained. The available localities are varied and together they may constitute a fairly representative sample of the country as a whole. The counties include Kent, East Sussex, Yorkshire, Warwickshire,Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, together with the archdeaconry of Northampton and the urban communities of York, Hull, Leeds and Norwich.97 The 93 Susan Brigden, "Youth and the English Reformation", Past and Present, xcv (1982), pp. 37-67. The present writer can corroborate this revealing article from still further evidence. 94 Note the case (1531) of William Tracy's Protestant will and the attempt to invalidate it by a charge of heresy, A.G. Dickens, English Reformation (note 7, above), p. 96. Grafton then publicised the will in the 1550 edition of Edward Hall's chronicle, The Union of the Two Noble Families, fol. cci. 95 Despite the probability that Protestant clerics and prominent laymen ran a much greater risk of being reported and charged, working-class people remain far more numerous in J. Fines' Register (note 13, above) and in the lists of martyrs. 96 Dickens, Lollards and Protestants, pp. 171-72. 97 P. Clark; English Provincial Society from the Reformation to the Revolution: Religion, Politics and SocietyinKent, 1500-1640 (Hassocks, 1977), pp. 41,58-60,76-77,100,102,152,420 (notes 72-73); G.J. Mayhew, "The Progress of the Reformation in East Sussex 1530-1559: The Evidence from Wills", Southern History, v (1983), pp. 38-67; idem, Tudor Rye (Palmer, 1987); Dickens, Lollards and


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trends indicated in these various areas have a good deal in common. As Professor Scarisbrick discovered after reading very numerous early wills, the great majority continues to make traditional bequests to the church throughout the 1530s.98 In the above group of places, apart from London and Kent, signs of change are indeed by no means common until around 1545, while the notable period of Protestant advance occupies the whole of Edward VI's reign. Soon after the accession of Mary there occurs a predictable decline of Protestant forms, though nowhere does this partial reversion restore the Henrician situation. Then in 1559-60 a swift resurgence of Protestantism supports my conjecture that many crypto-Protestants, doubtless accompanied by mere opportunists, emerged into the open as soon as it became safe to do so. As one would anticipate, such fluctuations occur at somewhat later dates and lower numerical levels in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and other conservative areas, as compared with "advanced" Kent, where we observe already an annual increase in Protestant-type wills from 1532 to 1542. By the years 1542-46 about half the Kent wills were showing Protestant inclinations, which then heavily predominated throughout Edwardian years, and even - though in lesser degree - under Mary. As elsewhere, the Protestant figures in Kent rise dramatically in 1559-60. In East Sussex such signs are rare until 1545, though a steep increase appears in 1547-8, and by 154953 threatens to overwhelm the old forms. Though in Sussex, probably as a result of the sharp local persecution, traditional wills prevailed by 155658, a considerable Protestant core survived and the normal reversal occurred from 1559. In Northamptonshire the slower tempo is noticeable. Even under Edward VI over half the testators retain the traditional forms, while about one-third reject the saints and one-sixth retain more decisive signs of Catholic belief. By contrast the city of Norwich shows early inclinations toward change. There the first new-style wills occur in 1535: by 1544-45 over half the wills are Protestant, and by 155 3 only about 5 per cent Protestants, pp. 171-72, 215-18, 220-21; D. Wilson,/! Tudor Tapestry (London, 1972), p. 260; W.J. Sheils, The Puritans in the Diocese of Peterborough (Northamptonshire Record Society, xxx, 1979), pp. 15-18; D.M. Palliser, The Reformation in York (note 33, above), p. 32; M. Claire Cross, "Parochial Structure" (note 79, above), passim; eadem, "The Development of Protestantism in Leeds and Hull" (note 79, above), passim; Elaine Sheppard, "The Reformation and the Citizens of Norwich", Norfolk Archaeology, xxxviii (1983), pp. 44-58. In addition note the smaller groups of wills cited by Margaret Spufford, Contrasting Communities (note 48, above), and by C. Haigh, Reformation and Resistance (note 12, above), pp. 68-71, 82, 194, 220-21, 227; these latter concern the numerous Lancashire wills printed by the Chetham Society and elsewhere. It should finally be noted that Dr Susan Brigden in her unpublished Cambridge Ph.D. Thesis (1977), "The Early Reformation in London", pp. 33348, also finds wills important as an index to religious change in London. 98 "There was certainly an upsurge of Protestant wills, with a full-blown non-Catholic preamble and absence of traditional religious legacies, in London from the mid-1530s", J.J. Scarisbrick (note 1, above), p. 6. On methodology see M.L. Zell, "The Use of Religious Preambles as a Measure of Religious Belief in the Sixteenth Century", Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 1 (1977), pp. 246-49.

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remain traditional. The Catholic figures revive after 1553, but over the whole Marian reign they still constitute less than 40 per cent of the whole. In Yorkshire a high proportion of the numerous extant wills remain in manuscript: I have assessed 750 of them dated from 1538 to 1558, but this figure is far from exhausting the surviving deposit of Yorkshire wills; it needs to be amplified and to be split regionally, since patterns were far from uniform over so large and varied a territory. Yet somewhat to my surprise, I found that more than a third of these wills rescinded the saints, while for the years 1547 to 1553 there occurred 139 traditional wills, as opposed to 153 of Protestant type, with 31 "neutral". Under Mary only one Protestant martyr suffered in a population which I take to have approached a quarter of a million:99 hence the emotional temperature presumably remained far lower than in south-eastern England. About one-third of the Yorkshire Marian wills I examined had Protestant affinities, yet I remain somewhat sceptical regarding the representative character of this figure in a still broadly conservative area.. Throughout all these groups of wills the local evidence on religious opinion corresponds to a reassuring extent with the miscellaneous information derived from other sources. It attests not only the advanced situation of Kent but also some of the more localised situations, such as the Protestant tenor of belief at mercantile Leeds and Hull, as compared with the conservative, clerical ethos of York. Future progress with these admittedly rough and ready indicators may perhaps produce some surprises, yet so far the results strongly argue that we must not take lightly the substantial advances made by the English Reformation before 1558. They also clearly indicate that neither Lancashire at one extreme nor Kent at the other should be accepted as a national norm. Yet, statistics and maps apart, the present writer comes away from all these sources with the distinct impression that, by the advent of Elizabeth, Protestantism had not only surmounted the harshest threat to its survival but had for the time being attained a greater psychological vitality and cohesion in English society than had the cause of conservative Catholicism. At all events this impression would seem fully applicable to the large south-eastern heartland and its westward extensions, the regions which by mere area comprised less than half England, though constituting the wealthiest, most populous and besteducated portion of the realm. Seventeen years ago, and before such indications were less obvious than they have since become, Geoffrey Elton was guided by a sure instinct when he wrote: "But the fact is that by 1553 England was almost certainly nearer to being a Protestant country than to anything else; unless that fact is recognized, what follows becomes 99 See my rough yet convergent calculations for Yorkshire, c. 1600, in Reformation Studies (London, 1980), p. 193.


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incomprehensible."100 All the same, Dr Haigh's interventions seem to me acceptable insofar as they demonstrated that Lancashire, and in varying measure several other counties, by no means corresponded with this formula, large sections of their people retaining Catholic sympathies in 1559 and for some decades thereafter.

V. Some Residual Problems In conclusion I desire to set the record straight regarding some general issues which have arisen directly from the problems discussed in the foregoing pages. As already remarked, some readers may have derived the impression that I hold a simplistic belief in "Reformation from below", as distinct from "Reformation from above", as an act of state.101 Writing fifty or even thirty years ago, I certainly did hope to modify the excessive preoccupation of English historians with the statute book, with the mechanisms of church and state, with the top people who manipulated both. It then seemed high time to reiterate that, in England as elsewhere, the Reformation also involved personal conversions and convictions. In particular, should modern observers become too coolly enlightened to perceive the supreme propaganda value of martyrdom, they would lose contact not only with the Tudor mind, but with all Christian history. Even so, our modern concern with popular religion and grass-roots mentalities must not for a moment be suffered to obliterate our interest in the familiar theme of "Reformation from above". The greater part of my book The English Reformation did in fact continue to treat this old theme in detail, since "from above" and "from below" remain inseparable and equally essential elements of the story. After all, even the Henrician government abolished the monastic life, brutally despoiled the saints' shrines, forbade "superstitious" cults, provided English Bibles in the churches and allowed Cranmer to experiment with a vernacular liturgy. Such masterful acts of state powerfully affected, though they never totally dictated, popular belief and opinion. Their continuance and expansion by the Edwardian government gave Protestant convictions the necessary breathing space to attain that degree of recruitment, integration and confidence needed to survive the Marian counter-assault, which must still be regarded as the major crisis of the Reformation in England. Finally I should explain that this present essay does not seek to reestablish some "Whiggish" orthodoxy regarding the speed and extent of the Protestantizing of English society. Rather does it seek to avoid all such G.R. Elton, Reform and Reformation: England 1509-1558 (London, 1977), p. 371. C. Haigh, "Recent Historiography" (note 1, above), and elsewhere.

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simplistic, overarching theories in favour of humbler tasks, in particular the clarifying of the differentials between the various regions of England and the defining of a prime geographical focus of Protestantism which accords with the imperfect data and makes sense of the Elizabethan denouement. The former of these tasks seems to me as important as the latter. If one seriously maintained, for example, that in regard to pre-Elizabethan Protestantism Lancashire and Gloucestershire stood approximately on the same level, then one's broader conclusions would at once be in danger of distortion. Of course, "Whig history" has deeper implications. Yet the label is by no means so readily applicable to the sixteenth as to the seventeenth century. Moreover its present coding has become unduly complex. It nowadays suggests that the Whig under observation has given up research and lost interest in the advances made by younger scholars. Advanced in years, no longer fashionable, he has been left high and dry by the recent spectacular advances of brilliant young revisionists. More generally, it also means that he shows suspicious signs of being Protestant and patriotic, or even, in the most acute cases, that he believes the course of English history to have been "inevitable" and always guided "for the best" by forces resembling divine providence. While the present writer and not a few of his contemporaries must leave these charges to the verdict of posterity, let us at least hope we are found guiltless of Bishop Aylmer's notorious belief that "God is English". As applied to complex historical changes, I have never been able to attach any clear or useful meaning to the word "inevitable". Yet I also believe that our primary task is to examine the history which actually happened, rather than to create cardboard opponents or to fabricate those alternative scenarios which, given a little more luck, might have attained reality. In the Old Whig versus Tory Revisionist controversy on the early English Reformation, a major debate is still provided by the alleged "failure" of Mary Tudor, that highly significant climax of our story which may form a brief but by no means irrelevant coda to this essay, if only because one must not leave the impression that the religious issue dominated all else. Was there indeed anything "inevitable" about the collapse of Mary's aspirations? Had she lived another twenty or even ten years, would not the English Reformation have become - as the father of Tory Revisionism, Hilaire Belloc maintained - "an abortive and forgotten episode"?102 Given the Queen's continuing survival, would not England have entered upon a new politico-religious course, avoiding the "sterile" religious divisions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? One must fear that such speculations will produce little more than debating-club superficialities. The contending factors cannot be computerised, and all our verdicts may tend overmuch to 102 H. Belloc, preface to G. Constant, The Reformation in England, i, The English Schism (London, 1939), p. ix.


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lie at the mercy of our prejudices. Yet, if we must indulge in this shadowboxing, it may well be that moderate Whig attitudes will appear more respectful toward the evidence than those of their romantic opponents. Again, offered an imaginary choice, it might be reasonable enough, at least on secular grounds, to prefer the courses which our history has actually followed. After all, on what rational grounds could we envisage a beneficent outcome of Queen Mary's survival? After that first triumph of legitimism in 1553, she was soon surrounded by a complex of harsh problems: English antipathy toward Spain, an aggressive King of France, a defensive suspicion among the buyers of former church properties, a shortage of funds and an even greater shortage of realistic counsellors. There remained two overriding disasters. One of these was that mistaken view of the English heresy - shared in later years by Cardinal Allen - that the heretics consisted of a few pockets of small tradesmen readily destructible by tuition and combustion. Yet the supreme irony came from continental Europe: the poisonous hatred felt by Pope Paul IV for Spain, a hatred which in itself was to make Mary's two shining ideals wholly incompatible. This formidable complex demanded a consummate politician with an astute sense of priorities, but Mary was no sort of politician and suffered from a mental fibrosis almost unique among our former rulers. Her sorrowful memories, her "nerves", her romantic admiration for her mother's country swamped her natural intelligence. The deep elements of pathos in her plight demand that blend of sympathy and critical insight recently shown by historians such as Professor Loades and Dr R.H. Pogson.103 Thanks to such scholars,we now understand the problems she set Reginald Pole far more deeply than we did twenty years ago. Yet even in terms of Mary's own ideals, the reign must still be judged not merely a huge failure, but one likely to have become more monumental with every succeeding year. Attacking every problem with the aid of prejudices and dogmas, Mary could display no flexibility even when her most esteemed advisers, the Emperor Charles and King Philip, enjoined caution. Today we cannot credibly envisage her as an Arminian in the making, as a potential Anglo-Catholic with fair prospects of uniting the nation, still less as a liberal Roman Catholic, who might eventually have granted freedom of worship at least to the more moderate of her Protestant subjects. Such a step we cannot imagine her ever taking, yet if our present contentions are justified, nothing short of this would have been likely to solve her problem.

l()i

R.H. Pogson, "Revival and Reform in Mary Tudor's Church: A Question of Money", Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xxv (1974), pp. 249-65; idem, "Reginald Pole and the Priorities of Government in Mary Tudor's Church", Historical Journal, xviii (1975), pp. 3-21; idem, "The Legacy of the Schism: Confusion, Continuity and Change in the Marian Clergy", Jennifer Loach and R. Tittler (eds.), The Mid-Tudor Polity, c. 1540-1560 (London, 1980), pp. 116-36.

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Whatever the balance between their religious and their secular opinions, the English became ever more restive throughout the reign. The Privy Council records give the impression that few English governments have become more widely beset by disaffection and plotting. This inauspicious atmosphere prevailed to the end. By Mary's last year the supply of martyrs showed no sign of diminishing, and her further survival would surely have meant more exiles, more burnings, more conspiracies, very possibly even civil warfare on the subsequent Dutch and French models. People did not need to be rabid Protestants in order to reject such a persecution, while a government so burdened both by its own miscalculations and its undeserved misfortunes could not afford so divisive a luxury. Less acceptably still, the English people - presently ranged alongside Philip's oppressed Netherlandish subjects - became conscious of the need to resist the intrusion of Habsburg hegemony and Spanish Inquisition into northwestern Europe. Meanwhile Mary surrounded herself with notable Spanish experts on the eradication of heresy.104 In short she collided not merely with Protestantism but with a more powerful force: the endemic and instinctive nationalism so obviously on the upgrowth in England ever since the fourteenth century. Granted that legitimist monarchical sentiment had also prospered under the Tudors, it nevertheless remained far from proof against identification with an unpopular foreign dynasty or against disasters in foreign policy so ignominious as the loss of Calais. We are hence fully entitled to ask whether Mary's Catholicism could ever, under such auspices, have become an English Catholicism. Were not English political life and religious culture already diverging violently from those of Spain? At all events, a historian should not be dismissed as a Protestant Whig or a complacent chauvinist because he finds it hard to discern any tolerable outcome from a hypothetical prolongation of the Marian experiment.

I(M

On Bartolome Carran/.a, Pedro de Solo and Alonso a Castro, see J.H. Blunt, The Reformation of the Church of England (note 20, above), ii, pp 249-58, and numerous references in D.M. Loades, Reign of Mary Tudor (note 90, above).

4 Early Protestantism and the Church in Northamptonshire Throughout this essay my centre of gravity will remain low. I shall be little concerned with the top layers of society, with kings, ministers and eminent divines. Even the "practical" documents of the sixteenth century, such as parliamentary statutes and ecclesiastical injunctions, do not necessarily give a balanced picture of events in the lives and minds of English men and women. In particular, "ecclesiastical history" too often misses the human factors: it fails to realise that religion must largely operate among working people forced to live secular lives, not in some theological stratosphere high above the clouds. In some sense my remarks will form a companion-piece to a valuable essay by my friend Professor Scarisbrick.l Reviewing the strongly conservative aspects of Northamptonshire society in the mid-Tudor period, he showed that important groups in the county deeply disliked the proceedings of Henry VIII, especially the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1536 such people would probably have needed little further inducement to make them join Robert Aske and the northern gentry who led the Pilgrimage of Grace, that most formidable revolt of Tudor times. The situation must indeed have seemed confusing to many men of property and influence the leaders of county society - whatever their personal interest in religion. On the one hand they were being effectively trained by the new dynasty, trained not merely to accept orders from above, but to pursue with real conviction the task of keeping order within the commonwealth. On the other hand, even in the 1530s, Protestant beliefs had not attained general respectability, at all event among the older generation. Anything which could be labelled heresy still tended to be identified with civil disorder. It is therefore intelligible that many of the gentry encountered the new doctrines with mistrust. After all, the king himself, despite his Protestant ministers like Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell, felt much the same. Meanwhile the great bulk of the parish clergy were anything but prepared to exchange ecclesiastical tradition for would-be Bible-Christianity. They were rule-of-thumb men and did not want to be either "seekers" or intellectuals. As yet most saw themselves as faithful if unheroic trustees of an unalterable system. 1 J.J. Scarisbrick, "Religion and Politics in Northamptonshire in the Reign of Henry VIII", Northamptonshire Past and Present, v (1973-77), pp. 85-90.

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Though Northampton played an important role in Elizabethan Puritanism, the county did not form a prime centre of early Protestantism, and cannot be regarded as an exceptionally well-documented area in terms of Tudor religion and culture. Along with Rutland, it formed an archdeaconry of the enormous diocese of Lincoln until the year 1541, though the voluminous ecclesiastical records now in the Lincolnshire Archives Office (where many court books are missing) tell us somewhat less about religious change than might have been expected. I found more of interest when I came to inspect some early books of the new diocese of Peterborough, to which diocese Henry VIII assigned the archdeaconry. All in all, Northamptonshire should no longer be regarded as one of the blank areas on the map of early English Protestantism, as I shall shortly indicate. Rather than attempt a strictly chronological account, I propose to look at three related themes, proceeding from the better-known to the hitherto more obscure. First I shall dismiss the Marian persecution somewhat rapidly, since here it appears to have been a mild process, and since I can add only a few small points to what John Foxe wrote about the county. Second, I shall give some information on the state of the church during the last years of Henry VIII, at which stage some interesting "new" material is available in the county archives. In the third place, I shall more broadly survey the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI in order to depict the first infiltration of Protestantism into Northamptonshire, and shall mention numerous relevant pieces of evidence drawn from the most part from the county archives and from the diocesan archives at Lincoln and Peterborough. Only one martyr died in the county throughout the whole period. On the basis of a report sent him from someone in the county, Foxe provided the following account: His name was John Kurde, a shoemaker, late of the parish of Syresham in Northamptonshire, who was imprisoned in Northampton castle for denying the popish transubstantiation, for which cause William Binsley, bachelor of law, and chancellor unto the Bishop of Peterborough, and now archdeacon of Northampton, did pronounce sentence of death against the said Kurde, in the church of All Saints in Northampton, in August, anno 1557. And in September following, at the commandment of Sir Thomas Tresham, sheriff then of the shire, he was led by his officers without the north gate of Northampton, and in the stone pits was burnt. A popish priest standing by, whose name was John Rote vicar of St Giles in Northampton, did declare unto him that if he would recant, he was authorized to give him his pardon. His answer was, that he had his pardon by Jesus Christ, etc.2

This passage seems to be authenticated by its inclusion of the "right" people. Over many years in the manuscript books in the county record 2

J. Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. G. Townsend (8 vols, London, 1870), viii, pp. 423-24.


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office we see the future diocesan chancellor, William Binsley, B.C.L. (c. 1512-69), acting regularly as judge in the consistory court.3 Sir Thomas Tresham - who was once again sheriff in this year 1557 - had always been a staunch Catholic and had been rewarded for his many faithful services to Queen Mary, who appointed him Prior of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. John Rote or Roote, vicar of St Giles and now aged about fortyfive, had been nearly twenty years earlier a young monk of St Andrew's Priory, and had received the vicarage in place of the pension he would otherwise have been granted following the Dissolution. In due course we shall see him in another controversial context, but at least he obeyed all the ecclesiastical regimes up to his resignation and death in 1575-76. Such attempts to procure a recantation at the stake often occurred, and (whatever Foxe may suggest) could well have been humanely intended. As for the victim, he belonged to an occupational group prone to Protestantism and indeed to martyrdom. Incidentally, shoemakers were numerous in all areas and it would exceed the solid evidence to suppose that Syresham had become a centre of wholesale manufacture at so early a date, or indeed at any stage before the nineteenth century.4 Concerning the victims's denial of transubstantiation, this doctrine did in fact become the normal shibboleth of Catholic orthodoxy during the Marian persecution. Again, his crushing reply to the offer of pardon is highly characteristic of English Lutheran Protestantism. In the very month of Kurde's trial David Pole, a kinsman of the future cardinal, had been consecrated bishop of Peterborough; and the account of this prelate in the Dictionary of National Biography makes the conjecture that he specially sanctioned the condemnation. David Pole was indeed a firmer personality than his supine predecessor John Chambers, last abbot and first bishop of Peterborough. A convinced Marian who had taken part in the condemnation of Hooper and Taylor, Pole urged Elizabeth on her accession to return to the Catholic Church, and he soon suffered deprivation of his see. Nevertheless he came to this diocese very late in the Marian persecution, and he does not seem to have been regarded as an extremist. Described as "an ancient and grave person and very quiet subject", he spent his last days on parole in and around London, dying in 1560 on one of his farms. His effective tenure of the see thus lasted only a year, and the extant evidence is far from proving that he conducted a wholesale drive against the Protestants of his diocese. Yet clearly we do not have in the county record office or elsewhere full particulars of such contemporary events. Originally :i

On the elaborately-documented Binsley, a Wykehamist born about 1512, see H.I. Longden, Northampton and Rutland Clergy from 1500 (16 vols, Northampton, 1939-52, cited below as Longden), ii, p 101; A.B. Emden, Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, 1501 to 1540 (Oxford, 1974), p. 93. On Rote see Longden, xi, p. 257; letters and Papers of Henry VIII, xiii (1), p. 405. 4 V.A. Hatley, Shoemakers in Northamptonshire (Northampton Historical Series, no. 6, 1971), pp. 3-4, gives the general picture. 1 am also indebted to Mr Hatley for specific advice.

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Kurde's trial must have been recorded in some register or court book, but (so far as I am aware) the case does not appear in any of the Peterborough diocesan records. It is tempting to suppose that this entry may have been conveniently lost on Elizabeth's accession. The surviving books tell us little about heresy in the Marian years, yet some other cases did occur during the episcopate of David Pole, who was personally involved in one of them, dated March 15th 1558. A charge of heresy-the details unspecified -was brought perdominum episcopum against John Emlyn of Oundle, who immediately confessed that the charge was true, submitted to judgement and recanted. The bishop then absolved him from a sentence of excommunication previously imposed and prescribed a form of penance in church. Again, on the previous 11 October (1557) Robert Orton of Peterborough appeared before Chancellor Binsley, charged with failure to communicate, and though he claimed to have done so three days later owing to illness, he was sentenced to do penance before the high altar.5 These undramatic events do at least serve to remind us that there must have occurred many submissions throughout England which Foxe, even if he heard of them, would have had no inducement to include in his book. Possibly we exaggerate when we contrast the "heroic" Protestants with the "submissive" Lollards of earlier years, whose recantations are so freely recorded by Foxe himself. However, even one martyr could hardly occur in a vacuum, and I shall shortly indicate that in Northamptonshire Protestant groups did exist and can be detected even before the death of Henry VIII. Let us then leave these scanty fragments from the reign of Mary, and go back into the preceding years, during which our "new" materials on the state of the church, on the Catholic opposition and on the rise of Protestantism, become more plentiful. Even during the later 1530s several cases of resistance to the Henrician changes have been observed by Professor Scarisbrick, and also by Professor Elton in his Policy and Police: in particular the story ofjames (alias Nicholas) Thayne, drawn from documents in the Public Record Office. This chaplain of the wealthy but disaffected wool merchant Richard Fermor of Easton Neston appears to have waged a persistent local campaign in favour of the papal primacy: in autumn 1539 he was finally sentenced to imprisonment while Fermor also suffered the penalties ofPraemunire by the loss of his lands and goods.6 It seems likely enough that such conservative sympathies attracted a considerable proportion of the parish clergy, however rarely they dared to risk life and liberty by open attacks upon the Royal Supremacy. In the following decade :>

Northamptonshire Record Office (cited below as NRO), Inst. i, fo. 190, 198v. On Fermor, Thayne and their background, see Scarisbrick, "Religion and Politics", pp. 87-88; G.R. Elton Policy and Police (Cambridge, 1972), p. 238. For other Northamptonshire cases see ibid., pp. 74, 332, 357, 396. 6


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our background is much enlarged by that remarkable but hitherto neglected Archdeacon's Court Book at Delapre, now labelled Arch. III. This volume records a prolonged visitation begun in Oundle church on May 10th 1546 by the vicar general, Dr John Parry, here usually called Ap Harry or Aphary.7 At this date Henry VIII had only eight months to live and was still obstructing doctrinal change. The book begins with the comperta and detecta normally supplied by the incumbent and churchwardens of each parish, and here duly arranged under the eleven deaneries, including that of Rutland. The resulting prosecutions begin in the July and a few drag on until the summer of 1553. Thus after the first weeks of 1547 the game ceased to be played under Henrician rules: people are no longer tried for Protestant beliefs and practices. But the change of regime mattered little in the majority of these cases, which involved not doctrinal but moral and administrative offences. If we set aside the mass of routine business, mainly concerning sexual misdemeanours, what impression emerges concerning the state of the church and the development of Protestantism during these years of transition? Most obvious are the many complaints of material neglect, nearly all directed against the incumbents.8 Numerous chancels are in decay or ruin; sometimes the window over the high altar is broken; sometimes the walls have cracked asunder. Here beasts are pasturing in the churchyard; there the church is "misordered with children and dogges in the tyme of service". At Sulgrave the vicarage itself is in maxima ruina, presumably a state even worse than normal magna ruina of Tudor visitations. At Brampton "a glass window in the chauncell is downe, parte of it, and a cloth hanged before it". At some places the grave-mounds are in disorder; at Syresham the parson "hath a gate into the chirche yeard which was a stile, so that it cannot be kept cleane". At Kelmarsh "the chauncell of our churche is so decayed that the curate cannot mynister when there comythe any rayne, and the wyndow of the same chauncell is decaid in like manner". At Cold Higham just about everything is missing or in confusion, though we are solemnly told that during the last two visitations the wardens "did presente all thynges to be well by vertue of their owthes". Under Edwardian rule the Paraphrases of Erasmus - shared as to cost between parson and churchwardens - nad to be placed in all churches. At Kelmarsh the wardens add, "Item we have not the boke of Erasmus for his [the vicar's] defaute, for we ar readie for oure parte at all tymes". The whole catalogue of such negligences, especially the decay of fabrics and the desecration of churchyards, seems remarkably long, though I daresay not much longer than one might find in many other ' Ap Harry (D.C.L. Oxon., 1543; archdeacon of Northampton, 1548) appears in various Peterborough records as vicar general (Longden, i. 73). s For comparisons with the following cases, see M. Bowker, The Secular Clergy in the Diocese of Lincoln, 1495-1520 (Cambridge, 1968), especially ch. iv. A national survey of the problems is that by P. Heath, The English Parish Clergy on the Eve of the Reformation (London, 1969).

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areas of England, both before or after this date.9 These charges could be further extended, while a number made against the clergy, some serious, will soon be noticed. Doubtless, a number of faults never reached the records. Yet should we not retain a sense of proportion? After all, these eleven deaneries covered over 300 parishes, and it may reasonably be assumed that most of those unmentioned in the book were in tolerable shape. Certainly in mid-Tudor Northamptonshire an impressive volume of criticism was directed against the defaults of slack and sometimes disreputable clerics. Of course, anticlerical prejudices had been far from uncommon in earlier and less troubled times. Even before 1541 similar evidence occurs in the rather scanty references to Northamptonshire in the Lincoln Diocesan Archives. In pursuing the visitation books we also need to recall that by their very purpose they are concerned with the unspiritual and legalistic aspects of church life. But even allowing for these mitigating facts and probabilities, the number and variety of the charges made within the first couple of years, do suggest at least a fairly widespread lack of mutual respect and forebearance between incumbents, churchwardens and parishioners. Before, during, and after the Reformation, the sixteenthcentury church will only be idealised by those who do not know it at first-hand. The curate of Sulgrave, it is here reported, "went to the market in Banbury in a layman's aperall, in a hatt with a brouche on hit, to the evil exemple of many and to the slander of all honest people".10 At Isham two successive vicars had never paid their share in the cost of the Bible ordered to be set up in all churches.11 At St Giles, Northampton, John Rote, later to figure at the burning of John Kurde, "did draw blood upon William Walle the sexton within the churche and polluted the same chyrche", and he is also reported for failing to administer the sacraments to the dying. He denied the bloodshed and as for the latter charge, asserted that the persons concerned did not live within his parish.12 In regard to serious assault, it must be admitted that the laity did not invariably respect the cloth. Alyn Batt of Wardley (Rutland) "hath violently, shamfully and cowerdly stryken his curate the parson of the same towne one the heid with an hatchett, without any occasion showyd or given by the said parson unto the said Alyn Batt".13 At Kislingbury, the incumbent Rudolph Smyth is said to be "a common haunter of alehouses, givinge him selfe to drynkyng, ryotinge and playinge at unlawful games". He denies this, but is also charged with being 9 These and many similar cases occur in NRO., Arch. Ill, fos 27-136, over half between the summer of 1546 and that of 1548. 1(1 Ibid., fo. 30 11 Ibid., fo. 35 12 Ibid., fo 32. 13 Ibid., fo. 27v.


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a brawler and slanderer, a chider and a scolder.14 Again, four men of Culworth allege "that we have an unquyet vicar and that he will not folowe the Kinges injunctions by the wrytinge of the boke of regester".15 Two men did openly in the churche of Rothwell blaspheme the name of God and uncharitably use the curate".16 At Great Billing "oure parson haithe xxti poundes yerelie and he kepyth no hospitalitie nor yet gave [sic] nothinge to the poore". Similiar charges were made against the incumbents of Great Hough ton and Lamport.17 The Farndon wardens claim "that oure parson Sir Thomas Fowkes came not emonge his paryshoneres these xxti yeres nor yet haith not distribute to the poore paryshoneres accordynge as he ought to do".18 Financial negligence or worse is also sometimes alleged. At Norton Davy in July 1546, not long before the chantries were dissolved, the churchwardens accused the chantry priest John Sheldon of failing to produce "at saint Andrews tyde last past the some of xxxixs.viijd. for the obytt to be done in Norton churche aforesaid for the laidy dame Mawde Grene disseased, giver of the same, and the said chauntrie prest doth not hold and will not delyver the same money". Also by the terms of his foundation Sheldon was bound to have a surplice of his own; he did not in fact possess one, "but sittyth in the quere withoute a surples, more lyke a servynge man than a prest, to evell ensample of other".I9 At Oakham Robert Watkinson, master or provost of the hospital or almhouse, is presented in November 1548 by the two wardens because "he haith not preached at all sins the Kynges Maiestie visitation, but haunted tavernes and unlawfull gammes. And further he doith intyce or luyre certen of the parishe to his Latyn service from there parishe churche there to receyve holy breade and holy water, forsakynge the herynge of Goddes worde and folowynge his traditions." Watkinson failed to appear in court, was pronounced contumacious and suspended from office. With his case we obviously encounter actual religious tensions, on which I shall presently enlarge.20 Most of the charges against the parsons are rather trivial, and had the relations between clergy and parishioners been more cordial, one imagines that many of these problems might have been peacefully settled at an earlier stage. At first sight, in Northamptonshire the survival of an old anticlericalism seems more evident than the advance of a new Protestantism. An early Henrician example of antagonism - too lurid to be altogether typical - was unearthed some years ago by Mrs Bowker in the Lincoln 14

Ibid., fb. 67 Ibid., fo. 91. 16 Ibid., fo. 50 17 Ibid., fos. 93, 102v, 103. 18 Ibid., fo. 103, yet absenteeism appears less of a problem here than in some other areas. Cf. M. Bowker, The Secular Clergy, ch. iii, and her article in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xv (1964). 19 NRO., Arch. Ill, fo. 29. 20 Ibid., fo. 69v. 15

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archives. A middle-aged rector of Great Addington, no unlettered yokel but a bachelor of law, he had two children by his cook, a married woman named Mrs Byrde, who had done a spell in the stocks. By 1526 he had become so unpopular that he discarded priestly attire and further intimidated his critics by walking about the village clad in chain mail.21 Never at a loss, we can cap this story by another sensational case in the Delapre book Arch. III. It was brought in July 1546 by the church wardens of Pilton against James Baron, their rector since 1540: Also they do presente that James Baron, parson of the churche there, did live suspeciously of incontynence with Helenor Thurlebie the wife of Robert Thurlbie, in so muche that the said parson was taken starke naked in the chamber of the said Robert Thurlebye accompanyed with the said Elenor Thurlbie, the thurde daie of Marche anno domini 1545 abowte xj of the cloke in the night. In the presens of Robert Thurleby, Henry Thurleby, John Warner, John Deycon [one of the churchwardens] cum multis aim?1

This last suggestion of a mass-spectatorship completes a ludicrous scene in the otherwise uneventful ecclesiastical history of Pilton. Yet, seriously, it seems surprising that such scandals did not occur even more often among the celibate or allegedly celibate secular clergy.23 These men had not been rigorously selected, trained and observed. They were not monks, but had to live in the world; they needed a wife to cook and clean and keep an eye on their female parishioners. In the longer run, being normally small farmers tilling their glebes, like any yeoman they would have benefited in their declining years from hefty sons who could guide the plough. No wonder that in many parts of Catholic Europe clerical concubinage had been accepted over long periods - the more so since even Aquinas acknowledged that clerical celibacy was a law of the church and not a law of God. Better steady concubinage, one might add, than those cases of clerical promiscuity, which the enemies of the church exposed with pitiliess zeal, and were still so doing in the England of Henry VIII. These excuses may not wholly exonerate the adulterous James Baron, yet in the event he survived this lurid episode and remained rector of Pilton until his death in 1558.24 I shall again go backward a few years to examine the advent of Protestantism in Henrician and Edwardian Northamptonshire, concerning which relatively little emerges before the period of the visitation book of 1546 (Arch. III). 21

M. Bowker, The Secular Clergy, pp. 118-19, from Lincoln Register 23, fo. 216. NRO., Arch III, fo. 36. 23 "The most serious, because the most notorious, problem confronting the Church was incontinence", Heath, The English Parish Clergy, pp. 104ff. Compare Bowker, The Secular Clergy, pp. 117ff. 24 Longden, Northampton and Rutland Clergy, i, p. 199 22


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The latter is supplemented in the overlapping volume called Instance Book I, upon which I have already drawn for the cases of Orton and Emlyn. This book covers the years 1548 to 1561, but again records all too little about religion, as distinct from the commoner business of ecclesiastical jurisdiction: tithes, testamentary and matrimonial disputes, slander, breach of promise and sexual offences. The Northamptonshire cases of heresy prompt an obvious and important question. To what extent had both anticlericalism and Protestantism a common source in Lollardy? In fact little or nothing is known about Lollard survival within the county during the years around 1500. The evidence here does not encourage dogmatism, either positive or negative. The heresy had certainly been rife in neighbouring Buckinghamshire right up to the 1520s, and we cannot assume that it stopped dead at the county boundaries. Throughout much of south-eastern England, Lollard ideas seem to have become an ineradicable element in popular opinion. In many areas they probably reinforced the more obvious and immediate cause of this continuing restiveness. One might even add that the old Wycliffite heresy shared at least one powerful and positive characteristic with the new Protestantism: a burning desire to recreate a scriptural Christianity. Lollard "services" had consisted largely of Bible-reading, while Lollards memorised whole books of the Scriptures in the old translation by Purvey. But now from 1526 onward there flooded into England copies of the superb new translation by William Tyndale, later to be completed by Miles Coverdale. This masterpiece formed practically the whole of the Great Bible later placed by Henry VIII in the churches, even though from 1543 the King tried to limit direct access to the Scriptures by the "lower sort".25 Indeed, working people had elsewhere shown a presumptuous tendency to stage what would nowadays be called "read-ins", sometimes occupying the naves of their parish churches. Early in the visitation which began in 1546, it was deposed that at Oakham "there is many readers and medlers with the Bible, whiche have no auctorite thereto".26 At Carlton one of the churchwardens reported "that one Robert Barker, a smyth by occupation, do, contrarie to the actes sett forth by the Kynges Maiestie, reade the Byble in his howse and do go abowte to make interludes and plaies thereof'.27 Scriptural plays, such as those written by famous reformers like John Bale and John Foxe, had no small part in Protestant propaganda, and I shall revert shortly to this theme. Regarding public Bible-readings, we find another example at Lowick ("Luffwych") where the churchwardens present "Thomas Repon, '•" 34 £ 35 Hen. V I I I , c.I; cf. W.H. Dixon, History of the Church of England (6 vols, London, 18541902), ii, pp. 325fF. The act also forbade songs and plays "meddling with interpretations of Scripture". 215 NRO.,Arch. Ill, fo. 27V. 27 Ibid., fo. 36.

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Late Monastidsm and the Reformation

Edward Dayle, Richard Carter, John Nicolles and William Andrew, common reders of the Byble, not onely unto there selfe but also unto audyence".28 In the same parish, still in May 1546, another man was charged with "discoryaging and blamynge peple for usyage of beydes at tyme of there prayers and being a breyker of beydes in the masse tyme". Moving to the heading of "Higham, Oundle and Weldon" we learn that "Thomas Repon before rehersed is a commyn convertar of the pepull frome the lawys and ordynans of the Churche, with other godly ceremonyes and dispysinge of beydes".29 These presentations of Bible-enthusiasts and people opposing the old Catholic pieties naturally disappear after the death of Henry, when the new government soon showed its Protestant sympathies and the ecclesiastical courts rapidly toed the line. Nevertheless the presentations of 1546 are enough to show that a Protestant movement was already established in many places of Northamptonshire, even though its origins remain obscure. At Barn well in that year John Cockes "negligenter contempsit quasdam ceremonias in ecclesia celebratas, in tantum that he will not reverently take holie water nor holy breed nor kysse the paxe in the masse tyme: and also useth no beddes [beads] nor doth not come deuly to his dyvyne servyce".30 Others were in 1546 refusing to stop eating meat in Lent, an action anticipated in Zurich over twenty years earlier at the outset of the Zwinglian Reformation. The best example occurs in May under Geddington parish: They do present that Elenor Dauke, John Fowkes, Robert Eyward and Rose his wife did eate flesshe certen daies in the Lent last past. And also did sende flesshe beinge soden unto Christopher Morgane to invitate [sic] him unto that their detestable and noughtie fasshions. And also, where one Mr Doctor Barnard did preache at Gedyngton aforesaid, and there did somewhat declare his mynde and affection concernynge the eatynge of flesshe as is aforesaid, the said Robert Eyward and John Fowkes did rayle aganest the said Mr Doctor Barnard, seinge that he was a slaunderose knave and did slaunder God and his Scripture, and that they wold so prove him.31

To the protest against "pharisaic" observances, certain of the laity were probably encouraged by the few "progressive" clergy. Almost contemporaneously Richard Grace, vicar of St Sepulchre's, Northampton from 1530, was presented by his churchwardens because he "commendede 2 * Ibid., fo. 38. On the most famous case, that of John Porter at St Paul's, see J .F. Mozley Coverdale and his Bibles (London, 1953), pp. 265-68; Dixon, History of the Church of England, ii, p. 267. 29 NRO.,Arch. Ill.fo. 38v. 80 Ibid., fo. 37. 31 Ibid., fo.35v. This case is dated 11 May 38 Hen. VIII (1540). The one academic Barnard with the right dates and local connections is Robert Barnard, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1518-27, stipendiary priest of Brackley from 1528; died 1549. But neither Longden, Northampton and Rutland Clergy, i, p. 195 nor Emden, Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, p. 27, gives him a doctorate. "Soden" comes from "seethe" (boil).


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not Corpus Christi Even to be fastynge but of devotion; so he etc flesse himselfe".32 This means that he rejected the prohibition of flesh-eating on saints' days as a law of the church, though people might voluntarily abstain out of mere personal devotion. Following these disclosures, it emerged during the summer that Protestant ideas were circulating at Oundle: The wordes of Thomas Dale spoken in the church porche at Owndell in the heyrynge of many persons, whiche said in deryson that when folkes tooke holy water, that they make curtesye to the pycture of the rod [rood] in the same porche, and said that they crowched to the same and knockyd of theyre brestes and callid to the same for helpe; and said if he were God, he would not have suffred his face to have bene broken, and said, what good can this do, and said, I will take it downe if it do youe any pleasure, and said if he toke it downe he wold rayther be sett in the stockes than he wold sett it up agane.3S

The suggestion is that some act of iconoclasm against the rood had already taken place. Such crude protests could in fact have occurred long before this, and have a distinctly Lollard ring. But in any case, since the judges' questions were so appropriate to Lollard suspects, there remains little which is exclusively Lutheran among the recorded beliefs and activities of the Northamptonshire Protestants at the end of Henry's reign. The Evangelical and Reformed religion professed by the mainstream of English Protestantism did not merely denounce salvation by observances: it was Pauline and it proclaimed Justification and Salvation by Faith Alone; yet one would scarcely deduce this priority from the Northampton materials or from their like in a good many other areas. By what actual channels were anti-Catholic views penetrating into a hitherto "quiet" area? In this regard there remains at least one revealing case, again from the Oundle. It is dated 11 May 1546 and reads as follows: Owndell. The communication of Antony Ward at the Lyon in Owndell before Richard Coke, William Loftus and John Roberts of Owndell. The said Antony said, that it was told him at London by dyverse persons and commonly spoken that one shuld preche there lately, which said openly in his sermon, Where is God? Is he in Poulles?, sayinge No, no, your crede shewith planely that God is in heaven and sitteth of his Father's right hand and shall come agane at the daie of jugment, but he is not come yett. He said further that in an enterlude that was playd at London of late, it was commonly spoken abrode in the citie, that one of the players shuld saie, how should hoc est corpus meum serve to certifie a C. persones:prout in billa hquet, histestibus Ricardo Coke generoso, WillelmoLoftus etjohanne Robertes de eadem.™ V1 NRO.,Arch. III,fo. 32. The local wills mentioned by Longden, Northampton and Rutland Clergy, vi, p. 23 indicate that Grace was respected by his parishioners. M NRO.,Arch. Ill, fo. 39. •w Ibid., fo. 38v. Antony Ward of Oundle is probably the same as the Ward of Oundle mentioned as a sufferer for religion by Foxe.

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These recollections of London, broadcast in the Lion at Oundle, can hardly be dismissed as the chat of fuddled peasants because the sense is by no means confused. Antony Ward was obviously repeating attacks made on transubstantiation, the doctrine expressed in the formula hoc est corpus meum, and in the worship of the reserved sacrament at St Paul's, instead of the real God in heaven. How could such a doctrine convince ("certify") even a mere hundred people? As observed, this matter of the eucharist became the one over which most of the Marian martyrs were to be convicted. Again, Ward was repeating not merely a sermon but also one of those propagandaplays current in London, which we have seen mentioned elsewhere. At this critical stage his experiences cannot have been unique or even rare, for the capital lay at no great distance and was continuously visited by a varied host of provincials, many from counties far more remote. From a Lincoln register Mrs Bowker has published35 details of a case dated 1538, suggesting that even in Northamptonshire at least one educated cleric was holding and even teaching dubious doctrines of the eucharist. The accused was Stephen Wilson, a former Dominican friar, who had been a frequent preacher throughout the archdeaconry and especially in most of the parishes in Northampton. At that time licences to preach were only issued to a small minority of clerics thought to be learned enough for the task. Such men were superimposed upon parish ministration and one is in no way surprised to discover that this man did not hold a benefice in Northamptonshire. In October 1538 Wilson was accused, together with an Augustinian friar, John Goodwin, of denouncing the mass at the Horsemarket in Northampton. Wilson also faced the charge of having said that the body of Christ was not contained in the sacrament of the altar, that "matens and masse was but a babbelyng" and that masses for the dead were a clerical fraud " and all for money". For good measure it was added that two sergeants had arrested him in a lane off the Northampton to Kingsthorpe road, misbehaving with a beggar woman. Though Wilson was sent for trial to the bishop's consistory court, the subsequent records are missing, and the main interest of the case lies in the survival of a detailed report of Wilson's alleged pronouncements of the eucharist, made during a discussion with several others "at the sign of the Bell" in Northampton. On this occasion a certain Richard Moreton asked for an explanation of the sacrament of the altar and was first told by another priest "Sir Thomas of Brinkton" (i.e. Brington) that it was only the body of God. This orthodox intervenor can only have been Thomas Lodbrooke, who occurs elsewhere as stipendiary priest of Brington in 1526, and as witness to numerous wills 35

M. Bowker, The Henrician Reformation: The Diocese of Lincoln under John Longland, 1521-1547 (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 166-67. These cases are in Lincoln Archives Office, Vj,fos 1 Off, 30-31 v, 7685v,91.


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made in that village between 1521 and 1537.36 At this point Stephen Wilson intervened with a sophisticated scholastic discussion of the sacrament, interlarded with technical Latin terms and somewhat muddled by the informant or by the unfortunate scribe at Lincoln. Wilson first argued that the sacrament, being also involved with the manhood of Christ, was thus "bothe God and man". At this point, "oon Parker, a butcher of Northampton", unequal to such subtleties, said "I saw this day the body of God present between a priestes hands". To this Wilson replied that no man has seen God, that manhood and godhead are knit inseparably together, so that man can perceive nothing but bread "by his uttward sense", and must rely upon belief in faith, "which is the inward sign of the godhead".37 We may hope that he escaped without damage from the consistory court, since his real intention may have been to discourage the crude materialist concepts then all too common among laymen. If the parish clergy ever advocated radical reforms of doctrine or discipline, it must have been in such informal conversations as this, rather than in sermons. Though in 1535 Thomas Cromwell had expected them to preach the Royal Supremacy, few parish priests seem to have received licences under Henry VIII, and it is to be doubted whether many wanted to embrace the risks and opportunities of a new age. In our visitation book Arch. Ill, the churchwardens sometimes report that no quarterly sermons are held, and they tend to blame the vicars. But even under Edward VI these modest incumbents had little urge or inducement to shine in the pulpit. Blessed were they, in the sense that they could claim to be poor in spirit. While most local priests refrained from propagating Protestantism, it seems unlikely that they defended Catholicism with much conviction or success. We can hardly feature them as heroes of the Counter-Reformation. So far as we know, they did not maintain surreptitious Catholic services during the Edwardian years. A case of June 1552 does in fact show William Berie, a private chaplain, being ordered penance for holding services in the house of his excommunicated "master", John Stodard of Peterborough.38 Berie is not, however, charged with celebrating masses but with having "ministered the communyon" in Stodard's presence, while his patron's excommunication is not alleged to have occurred on the grounds of Catholic dissent. Stodard himself scarcely seems a model conservative in religion, since he had recently converted the revenues of a decayed almshouse to the education of his own fourteen-year-old son.39 :i-y, v (1983), pp. 35-67; Dickens, Lollards and Protestants, pp. 171-72,215-18,220-21; D.M. Palliser, The Reformation in York, 1534-53 (Borthwick Institute, York, 1971), p. 32; Claire Cross, "Parochial Structure and the Dissemination of Protestantism in Sixteenth-Century England: A Tale of Two Cities', in D. Baker (ed.), Studies in Church History, xvi (1979); Claire Cross, "The Development of Protestantism in Leeds and Hull, 1520-1640", Northern History, xviii (1982), pp. 230-38. hl Haigh, "Anticlericalism", p. 402. 62 Contrast the small figures in the dioceses selected by Dr Haigh with e.g. the much larger figures given for York by Canon J.S. Purvis, Tudor Parish Documents of the Diocese of York (Cambridge, 1948), p. 180. At York there survive in manuscript, from the fourteenth century to 1560, some 1385 causes, of which 311 concern tithe. Of these 311 about 121 are between incumbents and parishioners. In addition, between 1540 and 1560, no less than 135 tithes causes are between lay tithe-farmers and parishioners. On the considerable numbers of tithe-causes extant at Norwich (1519-69) and at Winchester (1527-66) see Houlbrooke, Church Courts, pp. 273-74.

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great detail and has since been supported by Dr Wunderli.63 That the situation was totally different elsewhere has still got to be proved. Similar considerations apply to the discussion concerning popular attitudes toward the church courts. I decidedly agree with Christopher Haigh in doubting whether public hostility toward these courts corresponded with the propaganda set forth by the secular politicians in 1532, yet before we enuniciate broad conclusions we still need to search for more evidence and perhaps in the end to make subtler distinctions. In the cases of Norwich and Winchester the scholarly research of Dr Houlbrooke revealed signs that some litigants may have had recourse to the church courts in preference to the secular courts, because of their lower costs and shorter delays.64 Yet Dr Haigh may well be treading uncertain ground when he deduces from this case a general access of prestige for ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Elsewhere Dr Houlbrooke does not fail to stress those darker features of ecclesiastical jurisdiction which attracted unpopularity, while amid the rich documentation of the London courts and of the consistory court of Canterbury, scholars have recently pointed towards a reverse of decline in church court litigation after 1500.63 Moreover, if some litigants approved the church's handling of suits between party and party, a more ambivalent situation obtained in the archdeacons' courts, which meted out punishments for the sexual offences of poor people. As Dr Haigh himself suggests,66 the supporters of this institution, "the bawdy court", were probably the richer people, anxious to discipline their inferiors and doubtless to avoid contributing to the upkeep of illegitimate children. On balance, this side of the church's jurisdiction can scarcely have added to the "grudging respect", claimed by him as generally accorded until the Reformation, after which he unkindly suggests that "contempt" set in. On all these problems the future will doubtless bring forth further inquiries regarding lay attitudes to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Such inquiries might do worse than begin with Chaucer's rascally Summoner. Can we progress into Henrician parish society and generalise effectively on the theme of discord and harmony between incumbent and parishioners? Were many of the parishes really hotbeds of rancour, or may we join Dr Haigh in envisaging rather simple and bucolic villagers, satisfied with their parson, unable to estimate his intellectual competence, turning a blind eye (i:i

Susan Brigden, "Tithe Controversy in Reformation London", Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xxxii (1981), pp. 285-301; Wunderli, London Church Courts, pp. 108-13. Cf. on London tithes Helen Miller, "London and Parliament in the Reign of Henry VIII", Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xxxv (1962), pp. 128-49, and J.A.F. Thompson, "Tithe Disputes in Later Medieval London", English Historical Review, Ixxviii (1963), pp. 1-17. M Houlbrooke, Church Courts, pp. 271-72. ( " B. Woodcock, Medieval Ecclesiastical Courts in the Diocese of Canterbury (London, 1952), pp. 10910, 125; Wunderli, London Church Courts, pp. 136-38; Lander, "Church Courts" (as n. 44), p. 228. (i " Haigh, "Anticlericalism", p. 401; Houlbrooke, Church Courts, pp. 49, 86, 271.

Anticlericalism and the English Reformation

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to a few moral foibles, and still reverencing priests on account of their role in the supernatural transaction of the mass? Pending a vastly more complete examination of the difficult evidence than any yet attempted, I continue to suppose that the norms most probably lie somewhere between these two contrasting models. As shown above,5' during the crisis of the Reformation, the records of Northamptonshire reveal several centres of militant Protestantism. Yet here social disharmony springs less from doctrinal than from moral and disciplinary tensions. Clergymen feud, brawl and drink with their parishioners, while equally glaring is the neglect of church-fabrics. All in all, in so far as the area may have typified much of England, it suggests that the relations between laity and parish clergy were better than the rancorous hotbed,though falling distinctly short of the idyll. This mediocre situation accords more or less with the standard recent works on the English parish life of that period, and it broadly harmonises with my own impressions of Henrician Yorkshire and other areas. For example, the act book (Greater London Record Office, DL/C/330) of the vicars general of the diocese of London covering the years 1520/1 to 1538/ 9 affords similar impressions of London, Middlesex and Essex. It adds somewhat to the already considerable evidence for the unpopularity of apparitors and other ecclesiastical officials. More strikingly it contains some ninety cases alleging clerical indiscipline, including illiteracy, plus a further thirty-four allegations of sexual misconduct by clerics. This may be compared with sixty-four sexual cases against lay people, alongside fifty-two matrimonial cases, many involving bigamy. Yet considering the length of the period and the clerical standards of that day, these figures should be taken to imply mediocrity, not infamy. Our attitudes to this complex subject should begin and end with a clear realisation that the sources will never allow us to assess the prevalence of medieval or Tudor anticlericalism with any sense of finality or exactitude. During these periods, problems of mass psychology are seldom amenable to quantification. As yet neither church nor state made surveys of public opinion: we remain largely dependent on common sense and can seldom expect to achieve more than strong probabilities. Nevertheless, the surviving evidence for an extensive fund of anti-clericalism in English society is impressive both in total bulk and in the variety of its sources, its origins and its forms. It ranged from universalist theories to parochial tensions; its obsession with the shortcomings of bishops and priests yielded place to a vision of the secular ruler as the fount of discipline; and in countries where papal authority was rejected, the ruler became summus episcopus with authority even to issue doctrinal codes. Meanwhile the Christian-egalitarian dream of the poor underdogs, anticlerical as well as anti-feudal, normally remained somewhat obscure save in times of popular rebellion. These 67

The following evidence is present in more detail, above pp. 133-49.

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visionary aspirations, best characterised in England by the Piers Plowman tradition, were dragged to the literary surface in printed form during the sixteenth century. Even so, they failed again to establish firm influence upon governmental or ecclesiastical policies. As Wycliffe and his successors had understood, the reduction of the clergy to spiritual functions and the restoration of the laity could only be achieved in alliance with the state. Yet in the event the state itself was forced to retain a modified "magisterial" church and a modified "impracticable" ideal of a society based on Christian brotherhood, an ideal still forced to take refuge within the persecuted sects. A similar process, attended by more lurid disasters but eventually ending likewise in the liberation of these sects, occurred through much of central Europe. If we must generalise about England, it should also be against some such broad European background, and extended across a long period, embracing the later middle ages at one extremity and the Industrial Revolution at the other. Neither the old context of ecclesiastical history nor the present fashionable context of social anthropology can provide an appropriate analysis, since neither covers enough of this huge spectrum. Within the international context and advancing in the late fourteenth century, English anticlericalism developed into a highly articulate and selfconscious movement of opinion and propaganda. Not without a distinctly democratic, egalitarian, anti-hierarchical complexion, it descended in both popular and Erastian mainstreams into the Tudor period, when it received a new access of vitality from printing and was eventually taken over by Protestant doctrine. The Protestants did not simply concern themselves with the faults of the clergy. They developed a religious motive based on what they took to be an overdue recovery of authentic, documented Christianity and a consequent rejection of the imaginative but sub-Christian elements hitherto so powerful in popular church life. This doctrinal development became a dominant force in English anticlericalism, dividing the clergy themselves and strengthening the attack upon that large part of their membership which still sought a conservative reaction. Taking full advantage of this situation, the Protestant activists appropriated and expanded the old anticlericalism. Appealing by arguments fair and foul to the lay public, they loudly rebuked and often exaggerated clerical faults in order to show that something beyond human frailty was involved. Guided by Luther, they said explicitly what Catholic anticlericalism had hesitated to say. They claimed that a defective priesthood had inevitably developed out of a defective theology. The latter had taken the form of a pharisaic code of physical observances, a misplaced confidence in "good works" as titles to salvation, an exaltation of coenobitic and ritualist ideals which Christ had never enjoined. Thus in their view anticlericalism had developed a creative function. It no longer demanded a mere disciplining of clergymen: it demanded a reduced concept of priesthood, a revision of


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devotional attitudes, an institutional restructuring of the medieval church. That the Protestants, once in power, made errors of their own in regard to the definition and the presentation of the gospel message, few modern scholars would doubt. Yet Christopher Haigh completes his article by making the specific claim that the post-Reformation clergy were so unpopular as to raise a new anticlericalism far more intense than that of previous periods: The minister who stressed Bible-reading to a largely illiterate congregation, who denigrated the cycle of fast and feast linked to the harvest year, who replaced active ritual with tedious sermons to pew-bound parishioners, and who refused to supply protective magic for this world and the next, was naturally less popular than his priestly predecessor. Hence, as Keith Thomas has noted, the rise of the cunning men and wizards, whose prevalence is a demonstration of the shortcomings, from the parishioners' point of view, of the reformed clergy ... Anticlericalism, in short, was not a cause of the Reformation; it was, however, a result.68

This eloquent phraseology does not conceal some distinctly selective tactics. Can we possibly dismiss the abundant evidence that a vast number of Tudor and Stuart people found the English Bible fresh and revealing, whether they could read or merely listen to others? Again, in point of fact, the Anglican Prayer Book was (and still is) just as closely anchored as its medieval parent to the cycle of fast, feast and harvest year. Who exactly "denigrated" the seasons and major feasts? And what of those two stereotyped characters, so oddly reminiscent of G.K. Chesterton's jolly Catholic innkeeper and his opposite number, the evil-hearted Calvinist grocer? Keith Thomas, it is true, suggests an analogy, even a kinship, between the preReformation priest and the "cunning man", both having been dispensers of mental comfort to the uneducated.69 But Keith Thomas then goes on to attribute a high efficacy to the Protestant alternative, a firm belief in divine Providence, in a universe where nothing happened by magic or chance.70 From several viewpoints we should suspect any simplistic identification of the old regime with comfort, and the new with mental confusion and clerical tyranny. On the contrary, after a close study of devotional writings, Professor Steven Ozment concluded that around 1500 the "tyranny" of the confessional and priestly control by penance antagonised the people of the German and Swiss cities, driving them to the easier yoke of Protestantism.71 Even purgatory, ostensibly a ray of hope, was then commonly depicted in such appalling terms as to alarm and depress, rather than to hearten the 68

Haigh, "Anticlericalism", pp. 406-7. K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (Harmondsworth, 1973), pp. 32-57 passim. 7(1 Ibid., p. 95. 71 S.E.Ozment, The Reformation in the Cities (New Haven and London, 1975), pp. 8-9, 28,49-53. Cf. T.N. Tender, 5m and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation (Princeton, N J, 1977), passim. 69

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struggling believer. There are also some obvious risks in equating white magic - the curing of disease and bad harvests by pagan rituals - with the so-called magic of the mass. The Roman Church never accepted any sort of secular magic as a valid component of Christianity and like the Protestant churches, the Counter-Reformation made vigorous efforts to cleanse society of magic in all its forms,72 a crusade not understood by the addicted populace.73 Whatever their interactions (which are obscure) the one was an integral feature of historic Christianity, the other a supersitition doomed to decline with the advance of human knowledge. So much for the image of the old-time popular priest, dispensing official and unofficial "comfort" in alternate doses. How common in England was that alternative stereotype: the overeducated anglopuritan, with his boring Bible stories and his endless, erudite sermons? Certainly he does not sound much like George Herbert, or Robert Herrick, or Robert Burton, or indeed like most of the scores of Jacobean and Caroline divines we know intimately. Indeed, if we weigh the odds, and allow applicants from among Patrick Collinson's "godly people", we should find few of these so negatively repellent. Certainly amid the increasing freedom of that later century we should expect to find some middle-class liberals making their protest, together with a larger number of muted objectors who, acording to the moralists and ecclesiastical visitors, spent the times of divine service in the ale-houses. On the other hand we need to allow for attitudes toward sermonising very different from our own. In the fifteenth century and much later, ordinary people did not despise preachers: they despised non-preaching clerics. Most Tudor and Stuart parishioners, the descendants of Piers Plowman, were still vitally interested in their own eternal salvation, as well as in curing their material problems by magic formulae. Lacking newspapers and other modern anodynes against the boredom of weekday life and labour, many of them positively enjoyed sermons. On both sides of this coin, our evidence seems likely to remain inconclusive, because most of it comes from the middle ranks of society and from townsmen. Yet despite those stereotypes and the doubts they are bound to engender, it may well be that Christopher Haigh's antithesis contains elements of truth: he has in his favour at least one distinct continental parallel. Not long ago Professor Gerald Strauss analysed numerous visitation reports from different regions of Germany. These established that the Lutheran clergy of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries aroused the resentment of their flocks by excessive zeal, in particular by making heavy demands on their meagre leisure-time in order to instruct them in the catechism/ 4 '- Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, pp. 308-14, 483-84. Ibid., p. 316. '4 G. Strauss, Luther's House of learning (Baltimore, MD, and London, 1978), chs 12-14.

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Professor Strauss also showed that the new-style, educated Catholic priests of the Counter-Reformation exercised similarly unpopular pressures.751 do not doubt that research will reveal some roughly parallel resistances against the more rigorist and devoted English Puritans, the teachers who naively thought that a Christian society could be created by sheer system and will-power. At the same time these examples, unless they prove very numerous and widespread, can hardly be accepted as a universal spiritual despotism, in its turn productive of a deeply anticlerical society. A note at the end of his controversial essay on anticlericalism suggests that Dr Haigh might for this purpose draw upon his own admittedly impressive article of 1977, "Puritan Evangelism in the reign of Elizabeth I",76 which I remember reading with deep appreciation in typescript. Here in justifiably gloomy colours he depicts the grim struggle waged by "godly" but unpopular Elizabethans to break the heroically entrenched Catholicism of Lancashire, upon which even by 1600 they had made relatively little impression. Indeed, throughout considerable areas of that county Protestantism never wholly predominated. Yet in its religious history Lancashire proved the least typical area of England, and for very good religious, geographical, social and economic reasons, which Christopher Haigh has fully explained in his weighty and authoritative book.77 True, there were other slowmoving districts in the north and the west, but none to match this. "The county fought the Reformation more vigorously and with greater success than did any other part of England."78 There must be one outcome: that the case of Lancashire cannot possibly be elevated into a nationwide picture of England, least of all in regard to Elizabethan anticlericalism. If such a thesis is to carry any conviction, the evidence must not only be massive but must be drawn from a number of areas far more typical of England as a whole. On the basis of the foregoing arguments my provisional deductions are as follows: 1. Anticlericalism, a natural reaction against the wealth and powers of the medieval church, should not be dismissed as an invention on the part of modern historians. A strong body of evidence suggests that it was already widespread a century and a half before the Reformation. This major heritage from the middle ages was ultimately bequeathed to Protestant dissent, partly by Lollardy and other channels of popular transmission, but also by the voluminous printing of its major writers and their subsequent 75

Ibid.,pp.288-91.

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English Historical Review, xcii (1977), pp. 30-58. C. Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), chs 6-15. Ibid., p. 86.

77 78

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imitators. If we continue to begin the story in the days of Richard Hunne and Cardinal Wolsey, we truncate its patterns and minimise the weight of this phenomenon. 2. The Erastian claims of fourteenth-century philosophers became a major component of anticlericalism. These ideas also underwent a sixteenthcentury revival in print, being eventually used both to demand and to justify the secularisation of church property in favour of the state. 3. The various forms of anticlerical thought and action developed alongside the survival of a substantial measure of traditional Catholicism, which remained strong at least until 1530, and in certain areas of England survived to meet Counter-Reformation missionaries in the mid Elizabethan decades. Historians upset the balance of the whole period if they dwell too exclusively either upon anticlericalism or upon traditional piety. The one does not exclude the other, and both could contend within the same individual mind. 4. Many of the harsh censures upon the lower clergy came from disciplinary reformers who retained all the essentials of Catholic doctrine, as well as from radical dissenters and "heretics", clerical or lay. While the early English Protestants inherited critical attitudes toward the clergy, in their case such attitudes were strengthened by Luther's teaching on "the priesthood of all believers", as opposed to the Catholic concept of the clergy as a separate order of men with indelible spiritual characteristics. 5. The alleged evidence of clerical depravity and ignorance adduced by the more rabid Protestant critics has been greatly modified by modern research. All the same, serious charges - both general and individual - are by no means rare, whether in court records or in the testimony of "respectable" critics, Catholic and Protestant. The recruitment and training of the last medieval parish clergy left much to be desired: inevitably some of them provided enough fuel to maintain a smouldering antagonism among the laity. Yet our present information on this aspect of public opinion does not enable us to generalise freely, for example to pronounce the laity either "satisfied" or "dissatisfied" with their clergy. 6. Before and during the Henrician and Edwardian Reformations, parish feuds and lawsuits could arise anywhere, owing to personal factors; yet the highest tides of criticism arose in London and other parts-vof southern England, as opposed to most areas in the mainly conservative west and north. This geographical pattern corresponds broadly with the diverse regional developments of both Lollardy and early Protestantism.


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7. Most modern authorities rightly regard the pressures of the ecclesiastical courts and of the system of tithes as in some degree contributory causes of popular anticlericalism. Nevertheless the surviving evidence, which tends to be diffuse and inharmonious, scarcely warrants a prime emphasis on these two factors. Both were very prominent in London, whence at present a high proportion of the evidence comes, but London cannot be assumed to typify the kingdom as a whole. 8. As already suggested, the traditional complaints against wealthy and secularist bishops, grasping priests, roving monks and hypocritical friars, acquired a more revolutionary character when they linked up with Protestant doctrinal criticism. Most fundamentally, the Reformation demanded a reference back to the Christianity taught by Christ and the Apostles, and documented in the New Testament. This biblicism, scorning the numerous unscriptural accretions and innovations of the ages, had unpleasant consequences for the conservative clergy of the sixteenth century. Their moral and intellectual shortcomings, real and invented, could be exhibited by Protestant propaganda as the inevitable result of false doctrine, the "bad fruit" which proved the defective character of the tree itself. 9. The stimulation and manipulation of anticlerical opinion, in order to encourage reform and confiscation by the state, necessarily occurred as a result of deliberate activities by the political classes: common lawyers, merchants, parliamentarians, royal officials, pamphleteers. Yet the fact should not be permitted to obscure the all-important role eventually played by working-class activists and martyrs in the advancement of the Protestant cause. So far as concerns the very numerous anticlerical writers, it would seem quite unrealistic to dismiss them as little related to public opinion, including the opinion of manual workers. 10. The suggested affinities between Catholic priests and the "wise" men and women who practised the white magic of spells and potions should be treated with caution. Again, an antithesis between "comforting " old-style priests and irritating Puritan preachers seems too simplistic and selective to fit the complexities of religious life and thought during the Tudor period. As yet there appear no convincing indications that anticlerical feeling became a stronger force throughout Elizabethan England than it had been prior to the Reformation. We should neither exaggerate the unpopularity of Puritan divines nor underestimate late medieval anticlericalism. Any such attempt to compare two unquantifiable forces seems unlikely to command widespread acceptance.


6

The Battle ofFinsbury Field and its Wider Context On 4 March 1554 some hundreds of London schoolboys fought a mock battle on Finsbury Field outside the northern wall of the city. Boys have always gratified their innate romanticism by playing at war, yet this incident, organised between several schools, was overtly political and implicitly religious in character. It almost resulted in tragedy and, though scarcely noticed by historians,1 it does not fail to throw light upon London society and opinion during a major crisis of Tudor history. The present essay aims to discuss the factual evidence and its sources; thereafter to clarify the broader context and significance of the affair by briefer reference to a few comparable events which marked the Reformation struggle elsewhere. The London battle relates closely to two events in the reign of Mary Tudor: her marriage with Philip of Spain and the dangerous Kentish rebellion led by the younger Sir Thomas Wyatt. The latter's objectives were to seize the government, prevent the marriage, and, in all probability, to place the Princess Elizabeth on the throne as the figurehead of a Protestant regime in church and state. While Wyatt himself showed few signs of evangelical piety, the notion of a merely political revolt can no longer be maintained. Professor Malcolm R. Thorp has examined in detail the lives of all the numerous known leaders, and has proved that in almost every case they display clear records of Protestant conviction.2 It is, moreover, common knowledge that Kent, with its exceptionally large Protestant population, provided at this moment the best possible recruiting-area in England for an attack upon the Catholic government.3 Though the London militia treasonably went over to Wyatt, the magnates with their retinues and associates rallied around the legal sovereign. Denied boats and bridges near the capital, Wyatt finally crossed the Thames at Kingston, but then failed to enter London from the west. By 8 February 1554 his movement had collapsed, though his execution did not occur until 11 April. Our chief narrator of the sequel at Finsbury was the French diplomat Francois de Noailles, an attractive clerical diplomat, soon to become bishop of Dax and to serve as French ambassador at Venice and with the sultan. 1

It was in fact mentioned by J.A. Froude, History of England (London, 1870), vi, pp. 375-76, as well as by P.F. Tytler, England under the Reigns of Edward VI and Mary (London, 1839), p. 330. - M.R. Thorp, Religion and the Wyatt Rebellion of 1554, Church History, 47 (1978), pp. 363-80. :i P. Clark, English Provincial Society: Religion, Politics and Society in Kent, 1500-1640 (Hassocks, 1977), esp. pp. 34-107.

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In 1554, being then thirty-five years of age, he was present in London, assisting his elder brother Antoine, ambassador of France to the court of St James. Unlike Antoine, Frangois found England tolerably pleasant, but in 1554 neither of them could remain an objective spectator of the English political scene. In sharp rivalry with the able imperial ambassador Simon Renard - a confidant of Queen Mary, and her main link with the Emperor Charles and his son - the brothers Noailles saw the interests of France gravely threatened by the proposed entry of England into the everexpanding Habsburg confederacy. This classic confrontation in London has been admirably described by E. Harris Harbison in his work Rival Ambassadors at the Court of Queen Mary.4 On 12 March Francois sent - by a Scottish gentleman - a report to Anne, Due de Montmorency, constable of France, in which the following passage occurs. Here I translate it rather freely, the French text being readily available as printed in 1763 by the Abbe Vertot from the Noailles family archives. You have learned how the Estates of this country, having heard of the extreme desire of their Queen to call a foreigner to the government of this kingdom, have not ceased to try all means of hindering this design, well foreseeing that it would be the total ruin of their freedoms and liberties. On that account they have made several remonstrances and requests, both particular and general, not forgetting to allege the ancient custom of the country, the will of the late King Henry her Father, and even the oath and promise she made to them when they went to the farthest parts of Norfolk, in order to give her the crown. All this has not availed to change her from her first opinions, and has been the reason why those with the boldest hearts, fearing this tyranny, have sought their remedy by force. Nevertheless, this has not succeeded as they hoped, God having perhaps reserved it for other times and other methods. Thence she has become so exalted and proud, that she has attributed this victory [over Wyatt] only to her own prudence, without giving the glory to whom it belongs. And on this occasion it has happened that, since she has scorned and rejected the advice of the wisest and best advised, God has caused her to be warned by the children, who, being last Monday assembled from several schools to the number of two or three hundred, divided themselves into two sides [en deulx troupes], one of which they called the army of the King and of M. Wiat, the other that of the Prince of Spain and the Queen of England. These immediately fought one another with such hatred and fury that the battle was long and far too cruel for their age, in such a manner that it could come to an end only with the capture of the Prince of Spain, who was suddenly led to the gibbet by those on the side of the King and M. Wiat. And unless some men had providentially [tout dpropoz] run up, they would have strangled him. This can be clearly ascertained by the marks which he has - and will have for a long time to come - on his neck. This has so displeased the Queen that the youngest [boys] of this gathering could not be spared the whip, or the bigger [ones] from being put in prison, where she has under guard a goodly number. It is said that she wishes that one of them should be sacrificed for all the

4

E. Harris Harbison, Rival Ambassadors at the Court of Queen Mary (Princeton, 1940; repr., Freeport, NY, 1970.) On Francois de Noailles, see pp. 306-8, 334-35.

The Battle of Finsbury Field

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people [sacrifiepour taut le peuple]. By this you can see how welcome the Prince of Spain will be to this country, since the children place him on the gibbet.5

What of the other sources? As might be anticipated, one of these occurs in a despatch to the emperor from the indefatigable Simon Renard. On this matter he is for once brief. Writing on 9 March, he relates that 300 children gathered together in a field, divided into two bands and fought out the quarrel of the queen against Wyatt. Several on both sides were wounded, and most of them have been arrested and shut up in the Guildhall.6 As a Marian partisan, Renard cannot draw the same critical moral as that of Noailles. He adds cheerfully that a certain alderman of London has just made in the Guildhall such an able, vehement, and convincing speech, persuading men to obey God, religion, justice, and the Queen, that several persons who had strayed from the right path have been rescued from their errors and heresies. A third informant is the diarist - apparently an official of the Royal Mint - who compiled the so-called Chronicle of Queen Jane and Two Years of Queen Mary. Mistaking the date of the battle, he wrote: "the vjth of Marche certayn boyes, some toke Wyates parte and some the Queenes, and made a combacte [sic] in the feldes, &c."7 Injustice to this often useful reporter, one should not fail to obseve that on an earlier page of his diary he provides another graphic instance of the hostility of the Londoners, including the schoolboys, toward the preparations for the queen's proposed marriage.He had in fact written that on the previous 2 January, when Count Egmont and other representatives of Philip arrived in London, "the people, nothing rejoysing, held downe their heddes sorrowfully", adding that "the day before his [Egmont's] coming in [that is, 1 January], as his retynew and harbengers came ryding through London, the boyes pelted at theym with snowballes, so hatfull was the sight of their coming in to theym".8 Thus it would appear that even before the end of 1553 popular resentment in the capital had fully communicated itself to many of the young. Having read the above passages, the present writer felt that these events should have left some traces in the manuscript archives of the city, and he was not disappointed. At the Corporation of London Record Office the voluminous Repositories of the Court of Alderman (301 volumes from 1495 to 1948) yielded two relevant entries, each with the marginal heading "Boyes". The first of these, dated 5 March, I Mary, reads:

1

Translated from Ambassades de. Messieurs de Noailles en Angleterre, ed. A. Vertot and C. Villaret, (5 vols, Leiden, 1763), iii, pp. 128-30. '' Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, 12, p. 146. Cf. Tytler, Reigns of Edward Viand Mary, p. 331. ' Chronicle of Queen Jane, ed. J.G. Nichols, Camden Society, original series, 48 (1850), p. 67. 8 Ibid., p. 34.

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Item yt was agryed that Mr Alderman Hynde should cause certayne of the boyes that foughte yesterday in Fynnesbery felde to be apprehendid if he coulde and to be broughte hyther to morowe, that further knowledge maye be had of the number of theym.9

Hence this entry is the one which authoritatively provides the correct date of the event itself: 4 March. The second entry is dated 6 March: Item the ponyshmente and correccyon of the lewde boyes that lately made certayne unlawfull assembles and conflyctes in Fynnesbery felde and other places withoute the Cytie was holy referred to my m[aste]rs thalderman of the wardes where they do dwell.10

It is not made clear how many offenders had been rounded up, or whether - as would seem unlikely - that within twenty-four hours or less Alderman Hynde had accomplished the feat alone. Whatever Renard supposed, there were no prisons at Guildhall, and the boys were presumably incarcerated at the sheriffs' counters or in some other city gaol. Augustine Hynde, master of the Cloth workers' Company in 1545, and sheriff in 1550, is a familiar figure to historians of mid-Tudor London. In 1546 he had been elected as Alderman for Farringdon Ward Without, and had then served for Cripplegate Ward from 1547.11 His ward was the nearest to Finsbury Field; hence, no doubt, the task was assigned to him. We might well suppose that he may have been glad to display his conformity and zeal on this occasion. In 1550, along with two partners, he had purchased former monastic lands with the immense value of £18,744,12 and like many others, he must have sensed a probability that the pious queen might resume at least a part of such lands in order to restore and reendow some of the monasteries. In the event, on the following 10 August death relieved him of such anxieties, this date having been inscribed on his monument in the church of St Peter Cheap, since destroyed.13 Indeed, anxiety must to some extent have affected most of the city magistrates, since the queen and the Catholic party had become well aware of the extent to which they had hitherto favoured the Protestant cause. When, in 1557, Cardinal Pole preached to them, he bluntly recalled their former heresy and anticlericalism, adjuring them to take example from Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher, and the Carthusians, and henceforth to atone by service and loyalty to the church.14 9

Corporation of London Record Office, Court of Aldermen, Rep. 13, fo. 131. Ibid.,fbl. 132b. 11 J.J. Baddeley, The Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward (London, 1900), p. 45; A.B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, ii (London, 1913), p. 32. Concerning this passage I am grateful for the expert advice of Dr Caroline Barren. 12 T.H. Swales, "The Redistribution of the Monastic Lands in Norfolk at the Dissolution", Norfolk Archaeology, 34 (1966), p. 40. 13 Baddeley, Aldermen; The Diary of Henry Machyn, ed. J.G. Nichols, Camden Society, original series, 42 (1848), p. 67, describes his lavish funeral, noting his proximity to the office of mayor. 14 Strype, Memorials, hi, pt ii, pp. 482-510. 10


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At this point, we may leave the unfortunate boys as they receive their beating probably under the stern eyes of their ward-aldermen, and conceivably at the hands of professional experts in the art of flagellation: their own schoolmasters. Yet before proceeding to general conclusions, several more circumstantial aspects need some clarification. Regarding the actual site of the battle, we are fortunate to have available a good contemporary bird's-eye view of what might be called the "north London" of Tudor times. There have survived two copper plates, which have been dated as neither later than 1559 nor earlier than 1547.15 One of these enables us to set the scene with unusual accuracy, being furnished with human figures and the appropriate place-names (see p. 182). Easily may we envisage the boys leaving the walled city by "Moor Gate" and walking northward by a fenced road along the western edge of "Moor Field", where our views shows cloth-workers pegging and stretching (tenting) their cloths upon the grass. Passing the manor house "Fynnesbury Courte", the boys would diverge leftward from the road and enter "Fynnesburie Field", where we see men, women, children, and animals. Several men are carrying bows or actually shooting, while another man appears to be waving a flag. The field is dominated by two wooden windmills, though in fact there appear to have been four, and later as many as six.16 A path crosses the grass from east to west, bridging a small stream. Here, then, was a large open space favoured for field sports, and doubtless very familiar to the boys, who would readily choose it as the nearest suitable area on which to stage a mock battle. Already in the twelfth century, the young men of London had been accustomed to engage in warlike exercises, violent games, and winter sports within this same area.17 The boys' homes and schools lay not far away within the close-packed square mile of the city. Within easy walking distance of Finsbury were Christ's Hospital in Newgate Street, St Anthony's in Threadneedle Street, St Peter's in Cornhill, St Thomas Aeon in West Cheap, and, of course, St Paul's in the Cathedral Close.18 Participation from Westminster School would seem less likely, though a Tudor boy would have thought little of walking even that distance. The Merchant Taylors' School cannot, however, figure on our list, since it was founded seven years later. Yet how did hundreds of boys escape from their masters and abscond to Finsbury for an organised event? For once, the answer proves surprisingly simple, when we recall that the correct date is 4 March, and that the calendar for 1554 shows 15

Reproduced by S.P. Marks, The Map of Mid-Sixteenth Century London, London Topographical Society Publication, c (1964), plate I. 16 On the windmills, see A Survey of London by John Stow, ed. C.L. Kingsford, 2 vols (Oxford, 1908), ii, p. 370. 17 William fitz Stephen, Description of the City of London (1170-83): the passage is translated, e.g., D.C. Douglas and G.W. Greenaway, eds, English Historical Documents, ii (2nd edn, 1981), pp. 1027-29. 18 Ibid., i, pp. 71-75, together with the references to individual schools given in Index II.

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this date as falling on a Sunday, the one day in the week when the boys must have been free from school and - presumably after noon - free also from church attendance. Topography apart, a more intricate problem arises from one sentence of the report by Noailles. To whom did he refer when he wrote that the party opposed to Philip and Mary was led by a boy representing "the king", in addition to the impersonator of Wyatt? Rumours to the effect that Edward VI was still alive circulated in London at this time, and obviously attracted Protestant and anti-Spanish partisans. From time to time the story revived even during the reign of Elizabeth. On 12 November 1553 three men came before the Privy Council on the charge that they had spread such "lewde reportes". Again, on 12 January 1554, a man employed at the Wardrobe of Robes was sent by the Council for the same offence to the Fleet Prison, pending further inquiries.19 It is likely enough that even boys who doubted the truth of these rumours would have been prepared to accept them for the purposes of this exercise. That someone else was invested with the royal part seems not quite impossible. This could hardly have been Guilford Dudley, Queen Jane's husband - to whom she had, in fact, denied the title of king- since on 12 February his execution had undeniably occurred. Yet still very much alive, there remained in the Tower a more possible candidate. This was Edward Courtenay, the still youthful Earl of Devonshire, whose grandmother had been Catherine, younger daughter of Edward IV, and sister-in-law of Henry VII. 20 In consequence of his father's conviction and execution for treason in 1538, this potential claimant to the throne had spent most of his short life in prison, but his Devon and Cornwall adherents had endeavoured to support Wyatt, while he himself had started to make regal gestures, even obliging visitors to kneel in his presence. More important, he had been suggested as a possible husband for Queen Mary, and later for the Princess Elizabeth, in which latter case London might readily have envisaged the pair as future Protestant monarchs. In 1555 Courtenay was to receive permission to leave the Tower and travel abroad, only to die at Padua the following year. Those of the disloyal populace who did not accept the survival of Edward VI in 1554 might conceivably have adopted Courtenay as an anti-Marian "king" though this would seem by far the less convincing explanation of the passage. Another sentence of Noailles may deserve a brief glance, though hardly more. Did the queen seriously express a wish that one of the miscreants should be "sacrificed for all the people"? By this odd phrase it was 19 Margaret E. Cornford, "A Legend Concerning Edward VI", English Historical Review, xxiii (1908), pp. 286-90; APC, 1552-54, pp. 363, 383-84. 20 On this theme see A.F. Pollard, Political History of England, vi (London, 1929), pp. 105-7, 115-17,161;DJV.B.,iv,pp. 1260-67. On Wyatt's personal relations with Courtenay, seeD.N.B.,xx\, pp.1102-4.

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presumably meant that the execution of a young leader might serve the community by deterring further disastrous activities. It seems very credible that the insult offered by proxy to Philip aroused her deep anger. Moreover, the execution of a boy did not mean then what it would mean today. The executions which followed the Evil May Day riots in 1517 included "some men, some laddes, some chyldren of xiij yere", and were accompanied by "great mournyng of fathers and frendes", especially as the Knight Marshal, Lord Edmund Howard, "showed no mercy but extreme cruelty to the poore youngelinges in their execution".21 Even so, the queen and her advisers would scarcely have been so imprudent as to stage the execution of a representative schoolboy in the politically unstable London of those days. The evidence of Noailles on this point is second-hand and not to be cited as evidence of Mary's inhumanity. In her wrath, she may well have uttered incautiously a thought which she had no settled intention to translate into a deed. As Dr Brigden has shown in her highly important article "Youth and the English Reformation",22 many apprentices and young serving-men had long been virulently anticlerical, directing gross ridicule and even physical attacks upon inoffensive clergy. As early as 1543, a priest walking in London "was lewdely sett uppon and evell entreted" by a party of "pretenses and mennes servantes which had played at fute ball".23 Nevertheless, the Finsbury "battle" does not bear the marks of an apprentice riot. Here we seem to encounter a different mentality. Apprentices commonly came from the provinces in their late teens, and a high proportion must have reached their mid twenties by the time they completed their seven-year apprenticeships.24 All accounts of the Finsbury affair mention "boyes" or "children", and never refer to apprentices. Moreover, they came from "several schools" and included both older and younger pupils, though none is likely to have exceeded seventeen or eighteen years of age.2' Perhaps inspired by their intensively Latin education, including the inevitable military passages of Caesar and Livy, they had (in our terminology) 21

Edward Hall's Chronicle (1809), p. 590. In the second edn of 1550 (The Union of the Two Noble Families, etc.) see the section on Henry VIII, fo. Ixii. On such executions, see Keith Thomas, "Age and Authority in Early Modern England", Proceedings of the British Academy, 62 (1976), pp. 219-20. 22 Susan Brigden, "Youth and the English Reformation", Past and Present, 95 (1982), pp. 37-67. 23 Ibid., p. 56. 24 G.D. Ramsay, "The Recruitment and Fortunes of Some London Freemen in the MidSixteenth Century", Economic History Review, series 2, xxxi (1978), pp. 526-40. On the geographical origins of London apprentices, seej. Wareing in Journal of Historical Geography, 6 (1980), pp. 2418. For biographies of Protestant apprentices, see J. Fines, A Biographical Register of Early English Protestants (1981),s.v. Beale, Boggens, Cornet, Davis, Gough, Hinshaw, Hodgesby, Hover, Hunter, Leaf, Lincoln, Smith, Tudson, Vivian, Wilmost. Of similar age were the fifty-four Protestant exiles classed as "students" and listed in Christina H. Garrett, The Marian Exiles (Cambridge, 1938). 25 Jo Ann H. Moran, The Growth of English Schooling, 1340-1548 (Princeton, 1985), pp. 64-70; N. Orme, English Schools in the Middle Ages (London, 1973), p. 134.


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divided themselves into supranational Catholics, and patriotic Protestants aware of the martial achievements of their own countrymen. The latter faction, judging by its victory and capture of "The Prince of Spain", and by the London evidence in general, was probably the more numerous. That many were hurt shows that the animosity went well beyond that of mere horseplay, as indeed Noailles clearly records. Planning a mock battle,with commanders drawn from contemporary politics, was not, as we shall observe, limited to England. We are here encountering a metropolitan group of grammar schools, uniquely placed, and familiar to us from some graphic passages of John Stow's Survey of London. In an idiom more sophisticated than those of xenophobic apprentices and anticlerical football gangs, London schoolboys could also be aggressive, competitive, and moved by inter-school rivalries. That such rivalries were involved would seem inevitable, and the evidence gives more than a hint to that effect. Stow describes their grammatical disputations, witnessed by him in St Bartholomew's churchyard, Smithfield. Though scholastic disputation had been discontinued, "the arguing of the Schoole boyes about the principles of Grammer [had] beene continued even till our time". In these formal contests, the boys of St Anthony's, Thomas More's old school, were regarded as the best scholars and won most prizes. Nevertheless, adds our informant: the schollersof Paules, meeting with them of St Anthonies, would call them Antonie pigs and they againe would call the other[s] pigeons of Paules, because many pigions were bred in Paules Church, and Saint Anthonie was always figured with a pigge following him: and mindfull of the former usage [boys] did for a long seasons disorderly in the open streets provoke one another with Salve tu quoqiie, placet tibi mecum disputare, placet? and so proceeding from this to questions in grammar, they usually fall from wordes, to blowes, with their Satchels full of bookes,many times in great heaps that they troubled the streets, and passengers: so that finally they were restrained with the decay of Saint Anthonies schoole.21'

In such passages as this we see a likely mental background of the battle of Finsbury, even though tempers finally got out of control, having been from the first enmeshed in those religious and political issues which at this time were vividly engaging the emotions of Londoners. Another obvious link about to occur in the careers of many of these boys was the one existing between their schools and the numerous law students not far distant at the Inns of Court. These students formed a notable Protestant group in midTudor London, and Stow specifically states that many had come up directly from grammar schools. '-' ' Stow, ed. Kingsford, i, p. 75. Bale uses "pigeons" to mean the courtesans who could be encountered inside St Pauls!

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Uite Monasticism and the Reformation

Here then we witness a special configuration of youth; but did it then have English parallels in the provincial schools? The present writer is at present aware of only one provincial example, and of all unexpected places at Bodmin, in Cornwall, over 230 miles from London. Nevertheless, similar events on a smaller scale may have been common, yet unrecorded. After all, the absence of newspapers dooms us to a relative ignorance of innumerable minor events in Tudor local history. This Bodmin affair occurred in the year 1548, amid a half-Celtic Cornish society, some members of which in the rebellion of 1549 protested that they did not understand English, and hence rejected Archbishop Cranmer's First Prayer Book. Yet it would now seem misleading to name the western rising of 1549 by its traditional label, the "Prayer Book Rebellion", since the trouble was in large part aroused and enhanced by social and economic grievances, not to mention a host of family feuds and local rivalries.27 At Bodmin the townsmen's long tradition of struggle against their overlords, the priors, attained an ugly climax during the last decade of the priory, when the town submitted petitions to Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, protesting most bitterly against the misdeeds of Prior Vivian and his violent henchmen.28 These people had little reason to love the old ecclesiastical regime. Regarding the youth problem at Bodmin, our sole source of information is that readable Cornish antiquary, Richard Carew of Antony (1555-1620), whose Survey of Cornwall (1602) serves that county as Stow serves London. In recalling the major revolt of 1549, Carew points out that a presage ("afore-halsening") of the trouble had occurred in the previous year in the conflicts of the boys of the grammar school at Bodmin. He had heard the story long afterwards, and directly from some of the participants. I should perhaps have forgotten the free schools here, maintayned by her Maiesty's liberalitie, were I not put in mind thereof through afore-halsening of this rebellion, by an action of the schollers, which I will report from some of their owne mouthes. About a yeare before this sturre was raysed, the schollers, who accustomably divide themselves for better exploiting their pastimes, grewe therethough into two factions; the one whereof, they called the olde religion; the other the new. This once begunne was prosecuted amongst them in all exercises, and, now and then, handled with some eagernesse and roughnes, each partie knowing, and still keeping the same companions and Captaine. At last one of the boyes converted the spill of an old candelsticke to a gunne, charged it with powder and a stone, and (through mischance, or ungraciousnesse) therewith killed a calfe; whereupon the owner complayned, the ma'ster whipped, and the division ended. By such tokens, sometimes wonderfull, sometimes ridiculous, doth -' Joyce Youings, "The South-Western Rebellion of 1549", Southern History, i (1979), pp. 92-122: A.L. Rowse, Tudor Cornwall (London, 1941) chs 11, 12, 15; R. Whiting, The Reformation in the South-West of England" (unpublished University of Exeter Ph.D. thesis, 1977), esp. pp. 293-98. 28 For surviving documents from the town archives, see J. Wallis, The Bodmin Register (Bodmin, 1827-38), pp. 293-312.


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God at his pleasure foreshewe future accidents: as in the Planets, before the battel at Thrasimenus, between Hannibal and the Romans, by the fighting together of the Sunne and Moone.-9

At this point Carew develops his presage theory by a wealth of classical allusions; but then, in a passage unhappily omitted from the modern edition, he produces some parallel events far more closely related to our present subject. The two of most interest are drawn from the French Wars of Religion. From his study of French history in the pages of the Portuguese Dominican Jose Teixeira (d. 1604), who had spent many years in France, Carew derived a comparable incident, which had become linked with the death of Louis, prince of Conde, the famous Huguenot leader. Saintes, a cathedral city and pilgrimage-centre, diverged from the neighbouring merchant cities of La Rochelle and Saint Jean by remaining Catholic when they embraced Protestantism. It did, however, experience a brief but very destructive Huguenot occupation in 1568. The following year the young people of Saintes, from nine to twenty-two years of age, assembled and chose from their ranks impersonators of the rival leaders about to fight the Battle of Jarnac - Louis, prince of Conde, and "Monsieur", by which title the French designated the eldest brother of a reigning monarch. In 1569 this was the brother of Charles IX: Henry, duke of Anjou, later Henry III, who gained the victory even as his Hugenot rival Conde was fatally shot. Meanwhile, between the divided and embattled young people at Saintes there had arisen a struggle more deadly than those of London or Bodmin. For three days space, they violently assaulted each other, with stones, clubs, and other weapons, until at last it grewe to Pistoles: by one of which, the imaginary Prince received a quelling wound in his head, about 10 a clock in the morning: the very howre (saith this Portugall Confessour) that the Prince himselfe, by a like shot was slaughtered.

In the same source, and from a nearby historical background, Carew was to discover a semblance chaunce, somewhat before the siege of Rochell, 1572, where, some of the boyes banded themselves, as for the Maior, and others for the King; who after 6 dayes skirmishing, at last made a composition, and departed: even as that siege endured sixe moneths, and finally brake up in a peace/'0

29

Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall (London, 1602), fos 124-5. The chantry certificates of 1548 give Nicholas Tapsell (fifty-seven) as schoolmaster, also chantry priest in the parish church. They call the people of Bodmin (2,000 communicants) "very ignorant". They do not praise Tapsell's ability to teach Latin (though so doing in regard to the master at Launceston) and give no detail on the academic status or size of the school. Cf. L.S. Snell, Documents towards a History of the Reformation in Cornwall, i, The Chantry Certificates (Exeter, 1953), pp. 10-12. :t " Ibid., fos 125-26.

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Father Teixeira acquired most fame as a patriotic champion of Portugal against its forcible acquisition by Philip II in 1580, but in addition to these writings he occupied much of his long exile in France in compiling several genealogical-historical works centred upon the great families of that country. Apart from mentioning his name, Richard Carew gave no references; but, after a rather tedious perusal of Teixeira's French books, the present writer located the source of the above quotations in a chapter concerning Louis, prince of Conde, which occurs in a minor work (dated 1598) on the family of Bourbon/51 These stories about Saintes and La Rochelle Carew took with fair exactitude from Teixeira, who incidentally claims that he himself got this information from an honest eye-witness: "Haece mihi narravit vir quidem probus et verus: quique mini ipsi se hujusce rei occulatum testem fuisse multis verbis confirmavit." It emerges that Carew took even his beliefs in the supposed historical omens from "this Portugall confessour", who, in fact, appears the marginally less superstitious of the pair. At all events, Teixeira freely admits that some people did not swallow the story that the youth died at exactly the same time as the prince whom he impersonated. Indeed, these same sceptics maintained that he was shot six days before the prince encountered a similar fate. Richard Carew's third modern "parallel" to the Bodmin affair seems less appropriate, even though it also related to a politico-religious conflict. This story concerns an eccentric Turkish governor in Greece, who in 1594 assembled about 500 Turkish boys between eleven and fourteen years of age. These he divided into two troops, terming the one Christian, the other Turkish, and ordering the former to call upon Jesus, the latter upon Allah. In the end the "Turks" fled and what Carew called "the Jesus party" won the victory. These remarkable parallels by no means exhausted the erudition of the Cornish antiquary. From Dion Cassius he had already recalled that the Roman boys divided themselves between Pompey and Caesar, spontaneously fighting in unarmed combat; and so did their successors between Octavius and Mark Antony. Again Carew relates how the Samnite youths fought among themselves under leaders playing the parts of Justinian's general Belisarius and that of his adversary Vitiges, king of the Goths. All these passages help us to establish a pattern, showing how the notion of ritual combat between young people, sometimes organised under individual leaders impersonating contemporary or historical figures, was far from strange to sixteenth-century students of the classics. Because it seems impossible that the French examples of 1569 and 1572 could have been imitations of our English examples of 1548 and 1554, we seem bound to relate all four to some more widely diffuse models, possibly owing much to :

" Rerum ab Henrici Borbonii Franciae protoprincipis majoribus gestamm epitome (Paris, 1598), pp. 107-10 . The British Library has a copy: 521 a 36(1).


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these three examples adduced by Carew from the histories of Rome and Byzantium. Doubting nevertheless whether these passages would have figured in the normal programmes of grammar-school boys, one begins to wonder whether our young English combatants had been deliberately inspired by partisan schoolmasters, a considerable number of whom are known to have been embroiled in the struggles of the English Reformation, and mostly on the Protestant side.32 On this issue a definitive answer seems unlikely to emerge, even though robust partisanships may often have arisen elsewhere in England, but with negligible chances of surviving in records still available. Such activities could quite possibly have tempted teachers who wanted to stage public demonstrations, while avoiding the dire penalties likely to be incurred by adult participation. All in all, the several parallels, ancient and contemporary, added by Teixeira and Carew are of major significance for our enquiry, since they establish a wider, continental context for the events in London and Bodmin. It also becomes apparent that the London boys passionately reflected the political and religious convictions of their elders. Even at anticlerical Bodmin, this juvenile contest could not have occurred, had the vast majority of Cornish parents really adhered to the ultra-conservative stereotype imposed upon Cornwall by most historians (though not by Dr Rowse) until fairly recent years. Nevertheless, for us, the mid-Tudor youth should not remain mere reflectors, since collectively they exercised a special function in our national history. Though by no means among the pioneers of the English Reformation, they belonged to that generation of Londoners which - by action or inaction - decided the Protestant preponderance beyond serious doubt. The child was father to the man: a mere decade later the boys who fought at Finsbury had become Elizabethans of the capital city, and had in most cases already adapted themselves to the Elizabethan Settlement in church and state. Finally, where should we locate these half-symbolic battles amid the complex currents of sixteenth-century mental history? What aspects of the period do they represent, over and above the juvenile yet timeless theme of Cowboys versus Indians? As we have seen, they clearly relate to the contemporary religious and political conflicts of the adult world. Conversely, they also reflect that clash between age-groups already documented as an important theme in Reformation England and in France during the Wars of religion.33 Yet again, we have tentatively noticed the possible influence :!

- On mid-Tudor Protestant schoolmasters in London and elsewhere, see Brigden, "Youth", pp. 59-60; Fines, Biographical Register, ii,s.v. Bland, Cobbe, Cole, Cox, Forde, Henshaw, Hopkins, Lome, Marsh, Nowell, Palmer, Patenson, Radcliffe, Series, Talbot, Traheron, Tyndale, Twyne, Udall. 11 For a summary of youth-participation in France see N.Z. Davis, "The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth Century France", Past and Present, lix (1973), pp. 87-88. For several antiSpanish "games" by "children" in the Netherlands, c. 1565-81, see G. Parker, The Dutch Revolt, (London, 1988), pp. 80, 130, 189, 303 n. 18.

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exerted by such models as those observed by Richard Carew in ancient history, models possibly cultivated by partisan schoolmasters. These factors may not tell the whole story, and imaginative social historians may well seek to probe further in the light of recent emphases. For example, several explorers ofmentalites have stressed that temporary relaxation of ecclesiastical pressures, that remarkable licence allowed - especially to the young - by the medieval church during certain feasts and periods of carnival. Even more prominently in Germany than in France or England, the youth savoured with relish the ephemeral joys of a world temporarily turned upside-down. Amid this international farrago of mock-monarchs, boybishops, and carnivalesque cardinals, can we reserve a modest place for mock-battles with juvenile generals? As with the religious drama, the satirical idioms and the spirit of carnival certainly overflowed from late medieval society into that of the Reformation. With regard to war-torn France, this situation has been discussed in erudite detail by Janine Estebe and Natalie Zemon Davis.34 Meanwhile, R.W. Scribner has co-ordinated and expanded a tradition of research on the theatrical representation of religion, the anticlerical masquerade, the nearblasphemous satire, which all continued to bulk large in Luther's Germany.35 Thoughout western Europe there survived an imaginative populace with a marked tendency to dramatisation and other forms of symbolic action based mainly upon medieval religion. To employ modish jargon, the psychodynamics of the sixteenth century were very complicated: they are inadequately comprehended within the traditional concepts labelled "Renaissance" and "Reformation". To this broad complex all the varied demonstrations waged by children and young people are obviously interrelated, yet the battles appear to maintain little connection with medieval religion or with the licence of carnival. In England, by far the strongest tribute of the church to youth had been the boy-bishop, long permitted to reign in several dioceses during certain seasons of the year.36 Abolished by Henry VIII, he was halfheartedly revived by Queen Mary, yet nevertheless he seems unrelated to the youth demonstrations of midTudor England. In England, as in France, the young combatants were obviously far more conscious of the politico-religious present than of the ecclesiastical past. To say much more, we need additional facts rather than imaginative interpretations. :M

J.Estebe, Tocsin pour un massacre: la saisondes Saint-Barthelemy (Paris, 1968); N.Z. Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford, 1975). The latter reprints some, but not all, of her articles in Past and Present from 1971 to 1981. Another article is in Archivfiir Reformationsgeschichte, Ivi (1965), pp. 48-64. :!r> R.W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (London, 1987), esp. ch.4. :t() H. Maynard Smith, Pre-Refonnation England (London, 1938), pp. 137-41.

7 a The three letters printed below afford unwonted glimpses of a milieu still in some respects obscure: the social contacts, status and private opinions of the Yorkshire parish clergy during the crucial middle years of the sixteenth century. They have little in common with that vast bulk of contemporary official and semi-official correspondence preserved by design in our public archives. They belong to a far rarer and more precious documentary type: that of fugitive and ephemeral letters preserved only by exceptional accident. All three were written by William Watson, curate of Melton-onthe-Hill, to his friend and neighbour Robert Parkyn, curate of Adwick-leStreet. Concerning the manifold literary activities of this latter cleric, much has been of late discovered from other sources, notably from his extensive manuscript book of miscellanea, whence the present writer has already printed a violently conservative narrative of the Reformation 1 and a prayer Parkyn attributed to Sir Thomas More.2 In the same book3 are also three treatises of Richard Rolle (a remarkable survival of the local cult maintained at Hampole Priory in Parkyn's own parish almost up to the Dissolution); some original verse, a Latin sermon, catalogues of the kings of Israel and England, a verse-chronicle of the Kings of England imitated from Lydgate; a version of Lydgate's Dietarium salutis and five letters of Cyprian. In a second manuscript book Parkyn wrote a metrical life of Christ which, having belonged successively to Thoresby, Heber and Sir Leicester Harmsworth, came to the Bodleian in December, 1949.4 His third manuscript, and earlier draft of the portion of this poem which covers sacred history from the Passion to Pentecost, is much more closely related with our present subject, since Parkyn wrote this draft in 1555-56 on the backs, margins and interlinear spaces of correspondence he had recently received,0 an example of paper-economy which has preserved for us five

' English Historical Review, Ixii, 64ff from Bodleian Library, MS Lat. th. d. 15. - Church Quarterly Review, 1937, pp. 224ft". 1 Cf. English Historical Review, Ixii, 58ff, for a detailed catalogue of its contents. 4 Bodleian Library, MS Poet. E. 59. ' By 1899 seven such sheets had come, from some source now unknown, to the Bodleian and are now bound together as MS Poet. Eng. B.I. A fourth MS, Concordantice Veteris et Novi Testamenti conscriptce per minus Roberti Parkini, is in the Aberdeen University Library, MS 185.

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letters, two from his brother John Parkyn, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,6 and these three from William Watson. Of Watson himself we know a good deal, quite apart from the present very self-revealing documents. He first appears as a beneficiary under the will, dated 21 January 1541,7 of Humphrey Gascoign, younger son of a notable Yorkshire family and a distinguished ecclesiastical pluralist. After bequests to 'Sir Roberte Parkin my servant' and to 'Sir William Cowarde my parish prest', Gascoign bequeaths 'to Sir William Watson curet of Meltonon-the-Hill one boke of Latten of a large volume namid Sermones Discipuli' .8 Watson had hence become curate of Melton between 1535, when one Robert Mawger occupied the living,9 and 1541. Thanks to appropriation by Hampole Priory, the curate received an annual stipend of only £4 13s. 4d., a fixed sum unlikely to be augmented, as the incomes of tithereceiving clergy were being augmented, by the rise of agricultural prices in an age of inflation. Not unnaturally, and doubtless typically of that large minority of Yorkshire clergy thus affected by appropriations,' ° his thoughts run constantly on his own poverty, lately accentuated by responsibility for the four children of his sister. Like others, Watson had borrowed from Robert Parkyn, who possessed private means, yet he obviously continued to hold his more fortunate friend in sincere respect and affection. Though capable of administering a reproof, he apears to have stood in some measure under Parkyn's literary tutelage. Altogether, the evidence regarding the pair affords a well-nigh unique insight into the narrow, conservative, yet warmly pietistic minds of these Marian parish priests, with their overwhelming belief in the importance and efficacy of masses for the dead, their archaic poets and commentators, their sense of continuity with the 'medieval' past, their local jealousies and petty resentments, their struggle to preserve hospitality and prestige on exiguous stipends, their buying and lending of books, their cautious retention of livings despite religious changes they abhorred. Parkyn had planned to leave Watson some of his books, but the two friends must have 6

The relationship is definitely proved by John Parkyn's will (pr. 27 Jan. 1559), in which his brother Robert occurs as legatee and executor (Peterborough Probate Registry, Wills Proved in the Vice-Chancellor's Court of Cambridge, ii, fo. 5). John Parkyn's letters are of little Yorkshire interest, but throw useful light on the connections of a Cambridge don with his family in the provinces. They have been printed in Cambridge Antiquarian Society, xliii, pp. 21-29. 7 Cf. Letter III for information on his family and early background. 8 York Diocesan Registry, R.I. xxviii (Reg. Lee), fo. 183. Sermones discipuli by the fifteenthcentury Dominican Johannes Herolt is a good example of the old-fashioned continental works still popular in provincial circles about this date. It went through a large number of printed editions from 1476 onwards (Main, Repertorium bibliographicum, nos. 8478ff.) and is commonly encountered in English clerical wills. 9 Valor Ecdesiasticus, v, p. 52. 10 On the exceptional scope of this problem in Yorkshire, cf. A. Hamilton Thompson, The English Clergy, pp. 115-16.


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died almost simultaneously since their wills were proved on the same day, 5 October 1570.11 To Mr Hudson, dean of Doncaster,12 Watson gives 'one booke called Dionysius Cartusiensis';13 to his cousin Sir Thomas Robinson, parson of Sandal,14 'one booke called Judocus Clit' (sic);15 to Sir Richard Furnys his Latin Bible; to the vicar of Brodsworth, Robert Scholey,16 'two books of Haymo';17 to William Motte, his neighbour,18 'one booke called the Institutions Provincial'.19 All the rest of his books as well in print as in writing, he gives to his nephews Robert and William Watson, sons of his brother Christopher. From this point, though with the aid of a few incidental notes of explanation, we may leave Watson to depict himself and his small provincial world.

I. William Watson to Robert Parkyn, 15552" (Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Poet. B.I., fo. 4v)

Accordyng to my promices (intyrelie belovyd good brother) this shall certifye yow that I was in good healthe att the makyng herof (thanks be giffen unto Code omnipotentt) trustyng that ye be so lyeke wysse, ells I wolde be ryghtt sorye. And where as I understande by yowr lovyng letter that yow are verey desyrorous to speake with me for yowr comforth and 1

' Watson's, dated 28 April 1569, is in York Probate Registry, xix, fos 52v-53. John Hudson occurs as rural dean of Doncaster in 1559, 1563 and 1587; he was vicar of Rossington, 1558-92 and of Warmsworth, 1562-92; his will was proved 12 April 1592 (PRO, S.P. 10, 12; York Diocesan Registry, Act Book ii; R. vii G. 2277; R.I. xxxi, fo. 123). His name occurs as vicar of Doncaster in a trust deed of 1557 (Calendar to the Records of Doncaster, i, p. 8). l:! The voluminous scriptural commentaries of Denis the Carthusian (1394-1471) were published in an elaborate twenty-volume series at Cologne between 1534 and 1540. In addition, certain volumes appeared at Paris, 1542-47. Robert Parkyn left seven volumes of Denis, which he had received by the will of his brother John. 14 Rector of Sandal Parva, 1565-1588 (Hunter, South York, i, p. 199). '•' The scribe's mistake for Jodocus Clichtoveus (1473-1543), professor of Paris and canon of Chartres, who wrote, amongst many other works, an able but moderate Anti Lutherus (Paris, 1524; Cologne, 1525). The present reference is probably to his Sermones, of which Robert Parkyn had also left a volume to Robert Scholey, vicar of Brodsworth. "' A native of South Kirkby and ex-monk of Monk Bretton, who became vicar of Brodsworth in 1549 and held the living to his death in 1579 (Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, xxxvii, p. 69; York Diecesan Registry, R.I. xxxi, fo. 80, and Act Book, 1549-50). 17 Bishop of Halberstadt (d. 853) and author of numerous commentaries printed in Bibl. Pat. IM., cxvi-cxviii. 18 One of the several families of minor gentry at Melton (Hunter, South Yorks, i, p. 365). 1(1 Lyndewode's famous Constitutiones provinciates, of which a dozen printed editions had already appeared (Pollard and Redgrave, Short Title Catalogue, nos 17102ff). -" Precise evidence of date is lacking, though Parkyn was using this letter along with others written in 1555. It may be the first of Watson's three letters, as it records the origin of the financial extremities mentioned in the others. 12

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wolde have my presence of Munday att neyghtt next to accompany yow to Doncaster the morow after, this can not be att this presentt tyme, for the trewith is, I have had of laitte suche busynes as I never had in all my lyffe, for my suster children whiche was sent to me all att ones to my greatt busynes, vexation and trowble, they haveyng no other speciall frende bott me, for suche as showlde have hellpyd them arre the ferreste frome them, so that I am putte to my shiftt otherwysse then ever I was in all my lyffe (I thanke God of itt). Itt is lyeke to be to my greatt hynderance, but for Codes his cawse and charitie I am amyndyd to take payne for them and therfor I beseche yow have me excusyde, for to my thinkng I never stoyd so greatt neyde of good counsell and comforth senes I was borne. How be itt I am amyndyd to referre my cawse unto God and truste in hym and he will of his goodnes provide boith for me and them and will nott se the ryghtteous forsakyng nor ther seyd to seyke ther breade. And thus ferre yow well unto such tyme as we may speake together. Wrettyne this presentt day in greatt haiste by yowres to comande. W.W. preste. (Endorsed) To his trustie frende Sir Robertt Parkyne abydyng att Adweyk upon the Streitt be this deliveryd with speyd.

II. The Same to the Same, 20 September, 15552' (Ibid., fo. 8)

I cannot well tell how I showlde accomplyshe your minde (goode brother) in all thinges to your contenttynge and satisfying, specially in answeryng particulerlie unto every article, clawse or sentence of boith yowr lovyng letteres which I dide receyave to my greatt comforthe, thone vz. penult, die Augusti, thother the 13 of Septembre, beyng hallow roide his evyne, &c. Butt as towching yowr firste letter wherin ye lett yowr selffe to be in a foolishe jeloossye, thinkyng with yowr selffe thatt I schowlde nott oppyne unto yow the verey pythie and perfitte meanyng of such words as the person (ye wotte of) spaike unto me concernyng yow, seyng ther was no suche mention therof made in yowr letter, wherbye the said person showlde have any occasion to repeat the uncharitable matter; and so judge in yow other wysse then the verey trewith to thatt 22 ... and also swere to my knowledge and understandyng I cowith percey [ve] ... [ma]ner of thing, other then thatt which I showid yow att owr last be [? ing together], 21

The letter is dated S. Matthew's even; the reference to "exhortacons de fide" would exclude 1554 if we accepted the second alternative in note 24 below. 22 The subsequent passage is badly mutilated, but the general sense remains fairly clear. Parkyn had reproved Watson for failing to report fully some offensive remark made by a third person.


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wherefor I will desire yow pacyfye yowr sellffe, for when resone ... is spokyne which may be referred or takyn ... maner ... way redy to take itt to the best rayther then to the worfste]... [no]t know more of the matter and then ye may do, as ... use, for when I here more ye shall, be sewre, know m[ore]. [? I know n]ott as yitt of the meittyng Sir Robert Fox23 said he wolde have at Mexbrughe, butt and if I doo, then I will excusse yow and lay downe a groitt for yow accordyng to yowr desire. Have me recommendid (when ye can) to the person ye know upon who I was desired to praye fore. Item, for any thing I know of as yitt, I entende (Code willyng) to be att the mariage of Grace eyther the firste day or of the latter, wether as ye hade lever, lettyng me know before. If I come the firste day, I may chaunce take one nyghtt lodgyng with yow if itt can be any pleassure to yow, and then I will bryng home (with thankes) the 3 exhortacons de fide24 beside, desyring yow that ye will nott be discontent wit me for them unto that tyme come, for I have hade this 3 weike a goo, and yitt haith, more busynes then ever I hade in all my lyffe, so that I have skarcelie lefte me 3 pence in my pursse. And where as I harde say ye were at Marre in the feaste weike and wolde nott have bene ther except I had desyred yow, ye myghtt have knowen well enowghe that I wolde nott be ther (as ye have harde me say) by cawse Sir Robertt woulde nott woutchesave to drynke with me in owre feste weyke as other honest men dyde, I thanke them. I was nott at Marre this yere, vz. in the fest weike, savying that I toike a dynner of my brother Robertt W. of Munday laste, and I was no longer ther then I wa a dynning. All the towne (butt my brother) wolde nott bydde me drynke, I thanke them. Ye shall understande [fo. 8v] that I here nothing of money as yitt, butt thatt itt will continewe as it doith, and as for Mr Vicare of Cunysbrughe25 his booke, lett itt a loyne to I cum over and then I will tayke peanes with itt. If I putt eny moo angells away, ye shall have them before any man. I have putt moo away, and therfor, thinketh me, then ever I am able to geatt agayne. Finally I thanke yow hertelye for yowr goode and comforthable newes. 2:1 The subsequent reference to "Sir Robert" renders it likely that he was curate of Marr, which lies immediately between Adwick and Melton. Both Marr and Mexborough were served by obscure and poorly-paid curates, few of whose names have survived (Hunter, South Yorks, i, pp. 362,394; Fasti Parochiales, i, p. 2; ii, pp. 12-13). The name occurs at least twice in the ordination lists in Archbishop Lee's Register (1534 and 1539), but is too common to identify with the present reference. 24 This may well refer to some of Parkyn's original homilies (AberdeenUniversity Library, MS 185, fos 210v-217). It might mean a transcript of some of the homilies on aspects of the faith appended to Bonner's A profitable and necessarye doctryne, which Parkyn uses almost verbatim in one of his own sermon-drafts (Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Poet. B.I., fo. 4v; cf. Bonner, A profitable and necessary doctryne, 1555 edn), p. k.k. ii. 2:1 In 1554-55 there were no less than three successive vicars of Conisborough (Fasti parochiales, i, p. 72). In September, 1555, the vicar was Peter Silles, who resigned in December, 1558, and may well have been a local leader of the conservative clergy.

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I have hade yow comendyd to Mr Vicare of Cunysbrughe and also gyffen unto Mr Metham26 and his wyffe in yowr name heighe thankes for owre pygeons and other owre cheare, as knoweth owr Lord, who have yow allway in his keippyng. Wrettyne in haist one Saynctt Mathefw] his evyn by yowres to his smayll powre, William W[atson]. (Below) To his trustye freinde Sir Robertt Parkyne abidying att Aithweike be this delyveryd with speid.

III. The Same to the Same, 15 November 1555 (Ibid., fo. 15)

Ihc 1555. After that I had receyavid yowr lowyng letter (good brother) one Sett[u]rday att nyght last past and redde the same or I wentt to bedde, be ye sure I waws nott a littill glad in hartte to see and perceyave that yowr mynde was agreyng to my desyre as towelling the trental27 wherof I spakeunto yow, trustyng now, God granttyngus boith grace, health and space to accomplyshe that thing which my hartt have longe desyrede, requiryng yow (as I have hertofore doyne) to keippe yowr purposse and go forwarde with the same, praying for Christ his saike, brotherheid and charitie that ye will remember me, my welbelovyd uncle Christofer Huscroftte,28 and my most neighe belovyd frendes. And after the trental collect! to take (under the first per diem) the same collecttes ye have appoynttid me. Other better then thes I can nott appoyntt willynglye to have in your devoutt remembrance in yowr first memento: W.W., my uncle Christofer Huscroft and then generally all suche us Codes 26

Two branches of the ancient family of Metham had long resided in the immediate vicinity of Melton. The more important, headed by Sir Thomas Metham, had a large house at Marr (Hunter, South Yorks, i, pp. 360-61), but the present reference would more easily apply to the Methams of Cadeby (ibid., i, p. 351; Visitations of Yorks., ed. J. Foster, pp. 253, 364). Thomas Metham, probably a younger son of this branch, was a colleague of John Parkyn at Trinity, Cambridge, and a beneficiary under his will. 27 Trentals were fairly commonly revived in the Marian years (cf., e.g., Machyn's Diary, Camden Soc., xlii, pp. 98, 161), but Watson's rather dramatic tone suggests that revival was not locally widespread. Pre-Reformation practice with regard to trentals varied widely from the modern counterpart as regulated by the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences in 1888-89. (cf. J. O'Connell, The Celebration of the Mass, i, pp. 158-59). Watson and Parkyn apparently envisage a longer period than the prescribed thirty consecutive days; certainly they offend modern practice by including more than one person, and living persons. At the other extreme, the thirty masses might then, especially in a religious house, be said on one day. Sir John Rocliff in 1531 orders "that there bee done and saide Saincte Gregorye trentall of Messes at the Gray Frears in Yorke the daie of my buriall" (Testamenta Eboracensia, v, p. 320). 28 Bailiff of Hampole Priory in 1535,withafeeof£2perannum(Fa/or£ce/rao5to«, v,p.44).The numerous contemporary wills of this family place it at Campsall.


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his law and nature byndeth me to pray for, they beyng one lyffe; 29 inwardly desyring God the hevinly Father that we may be indewyd with grace of the hevynly spyrett thrughe the merittes of the Sone his passion, that we may use owr sellffes in this transitorient lyffe with trew catholicke feith, chaistitie and charitie, bryngyng furth good workes accordyng to holly scripture, whereby we may be enheritowres of the kyngdome of hevin by adoption and grace. And in the seconde memento^ro mortuis remember, I praye yow, the solles of Nycholes Watson30 and Agnes, my father and mother, and Agnes Ynshe laitt prioresse of Hampoll,:il with all other in generall which I am bownde to praye for, as God his law and nature requireth of me, most interelie desyring Gode the heavynly Father that they may be soyner releassid frome the peanes of purgatory thrugh thoblation of the blyssid body and bloode of his only Sone, Jesus Christe, ther beyng presentt really under the forme of bread and wyne, and so finally to be of thelectte nomber att the dreadfull day of dome, which shall stand one Christ ryghtt hand; moreover desyryng yow in yowr sayng of yowr collecttes att yowr derige32 to remember in yowr meditacion the persons that are above namyd departtid one the evyns before ye say eny messe of the trental, trustyng that ye will (if God call me to his mercy) after ye have once begone the trental, nott ceasse butt make a ende of the same. And so I entend (God wyllyng). And as for my cumyng to Hampoll att the requeste of Averey33 his wyffe, I praye yow have me excussid untill after Christenmes and then I will be glad to accompany yow ther with other of owr frendes. Money is now skantt; I spende of other folkes purssies, sens afore mychaelmes my waige is unhad; my chargeys was never more. iijsh iiijcl a weyke haisse nott excusid me this v or vj weikes, vz. att weddynges, aylles and meattyng[s] and I holde to it a whill. Itt will make me have a thridebaire goyne, as knoweth Our Lorde, who have yow allway in his keippyng, the xvth of November by yowres to commande, W. Watson, preste, who wolde know wether ye thinke to be one Tewsday next att yowr master Botler marriage. I wolde be ther skarste of money, and iterum vale. Remember the correction of the first articles of the34 (Endorsed) To his trustie frende Sir Robertt Parkyne curett at Aithweike one the streitt giffe this with favore. '-'•' "On life", i.e., living. 10 Will proved 21 March, 1537; to be buried at Marr (York Probate Registry, xi, fo. 288). :il Agnes Ynche, instituted prioress of Hampole 1512 and succeeded in 1517 by the last prioress Isabella Arthington (Victoria County History, Yorkshire, iii, p. 165). r - I.e., at matins, dirige being the first word of the antiphon at matins in the office of the dead, hence used to cover the whole service. The term was sometimes even extended to cover evensong (placebo), but it will be recalled in connection with this passage that secular priests, then, as now, commonly said matins the previous night. t:t A name fairly common locally, but not a family of consequence; likewise "Botler" below. ;w Probably only one line has been cut off at the foot of the sheet.


8 The Purposes of Historical Study at the University The following paper is based upon what I used to say when I introduced a new class of first year students to the subject. They came fresh-eyed, keen to conquer the great worlds of learning, the bloom of early enthusiasm not yet brushed from their wings. They brought me a great responsibility. I asked myself, "What do you propose to accomplish for them during this next three or four years? What particular muscles can you help them to develop? What special advantages would you like to see them acquire? What sort of people do you want them to become?" Faced by these questions, one could easily supply the partial, the superficial, the hackneyed answers; one might rehearse the obvious day-today utilities and pleasures afforded by a knowledge of history. Without it, what can a man know of his world? How can he claim to be an informed citizen? How can he even read his newspaper intelligently? Again, how can he, without such knowledge, enjoy his world? How much does a visit to Rome accomplish if you know nothing about the story of the Papacy, the meaning of Baroque? How much is left of Amsterdam if you do not know what sort of people built the tall houses along the tree-lined canals, what national triumphs Rembrandt was glorifying in the Night Watch? And how many amateurs to-day, having acquired some historical knowledge, find their keenest pleasure in reading "period" biographies, in haunting museums and churches, or by joining, when opportunity serves, in archaeological excavation? All these stock answers to the question have their point, but they represent a mere selection of results, not a fundamental analysis of principles and means. They do not guide a university department in planning a syllabus or a lecturer in examining his own methods and professional effectiveness. They do not apply exclusively, or even preeminently, to historical study. Many men become well-informed citizens by studying economics or sociology; many others become enthusiastic tourists merely through their connoisseurship of food and wine! In short, the stock answers do not get very near to the heart of the problem. The education of a historian is a singular, a peculiar, a precise task, yet it is not an identical task at all times and places. When I attempt some deeper definitions I find myself inevitably inclining toward a personal confessio fidei; it cannot be otherwise with the fundamentals of education. Nevertheless I must make some effort to avoid the merely personal confession; I must attempt to

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expound some of the principles implicit in the teaching of the great history schools of Europe and America. In so doing, let me keep at bay that bete noir of the practical historian: Philosophy of History. Let me rather write with real friends and real pupils in mind. I begin be defining one position widely applicable to all university pedagogy in the Humanities: that our studies aim, not primarily to provide a factual basis for argument, or even a system of ideas, but rather to forge in our minds special tools or instruments of analysis. We seek to provide ourselves with an apparatus like an astronomer's telescope or the case of instruments which a surgeon carries with him to an operation. We are not concerned to make of the mind something like a woman's sewing-basket, a rag-bag replete with scraps of information, or like one of those useful volumes called Enquire Within-Upon-Everything. When I hear a scholar praised merely for his "encyclopaedic" knowledge, I want to laugh, because the phrase recalls too vividly some of the more obtuse minds I have known. I could, indeed, cite more than one British scholar alive in my youth whose mind was primarily of this receptacle-type, and who relied upon it with catastrophic effect. Which of us needs to be an encyclopaedia? How many of us could in this sphere rival the reference-section of even a very small library? Which of us expects to work on a bookless desert island? Though the student cannot learn to use his mental instruments without a tolerable memory and without receiving a fair amount of factual raw-material, he is emphatically not concerned with historical study as a species of Pelmanism. All this may constitute a truism, but practical educators too frequently overlook it in their day-to-day teaching and examining. One might invoke in support of this criticism the phenomenon known as "social studies" which figures so prominently in the curricula of American high schools and colleges; it can prove all too often lacking in disciplinary impact; it may induce a mere reverence for fact and dogma, failing to create any "instrument", any mode of attack upon the problems of humanity. Let us, however, be modest and practical in our aims. We are not at present concerned with post-graduate training, but with that all-too-short course for a first degree. During these three years, the ablest student cannot adequately learn several modes of attack. He cannot acquire the instrument of a psychologist, plus that of a sociologist plus that of a geographer. We cannot in this brief period enable him to combine the mind of a metaphysician with that of a textual critic and that of a historian. To learn even one of these disciplines is a formidable task, attainable only by years of reading, listening, argument and composition. To supply a broad historical background is one thing; to teach a man to look at human life with the eyes of a historian is another. If inside three years we do implant this one method, forge this one set of tools, we have not dawdled. And from this concept some immediate practical deductions might be held to follow. The

Historical Study at the University

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multi-subject sources for the B.A. degree - also most fashionable in American universities - fall under grave suspicion. Yet, even within the safer sphere of a specialized historical course, a student may clearly learn to think like a historian without being made to "cover" the whole course of human history. In any event, the illusion that any such feat of coverage can be performed within the framework of a university degree-course has been effectively destroyed by modern historical synthesis. One could scarcely, for example, peruse Toynbee's Study of History and still retain the oldfashioned belief that the familiar combination of "Ancient", "Mediaeval" and "Modern" history roughly embraced the story of humanity. In our house there are nowadays many more mansions. If it be accepted that we seek, not to pour knowledge into a receptaclemind, but to create a special type of intellectual instrument, what then may be predicated as to the character of this instrument? Surely, in a liberal culture it should be neither mass-produced nor confined to a narrow repertory of tasks. It cannot be gained without much writing as well as much reading. It will need to be used freely at the will of its owner. It must not be operable purely within some system of ideas laid down by another mind. It must be flexible. It must be free to turn against all the doctrinaires and their systems; otherwise our vaunted liberal culture will ossify into repetition, into mimicry and rigor mortis, as other cultures have done before it. It may be that, through mental incapacity, the vast bulk of the human race must be compelled to mimicry; there may exist whole societies which cannot tolerate without disaster a pedagogy so individualist, so potentially iconoclastic as that which I am envisaging. We are, however, discussing the education of an elite in a twentieth-century liberal democracy, and it seems to be a fundamental postulate of such a society to create as large and as freeminded an elite as it can. In brief, may we not characterize our historical study as a process of Liberation? Even as we burden the mind we seek to free it, not indeed from all restraints, reverences, and historical traditions, but from merely irrational and uncritical servitude. We equip it to reexamine all things from a historical viewpoint. If it sometimes ends by accepting and blessing certain chains of the past, this too runs in the tradition of our liberal culture. "Happy the man," cries a character of Goethe, "who thinks of his ancestors with pride, who likes to tell of their deeds and greatness, and rejoices to feel himself linked to the end of their goodly chain." The true student of history is liberated in order to retain, as well as in order to reject. From his particular angle he implements the familiar charge of the Apostle, "Prove all things, hold fast what is good." If then a historical education be regarded in terms of Liberation, from what forces and factors should it liberate those who undertake it? We should not, I believe, find it difficult to agree upon a number of them: they are perhaps as obvious in our own culture as in the hieratic societies of the

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past or in the non-liberal societies of our own century. To revert to a notion already half-suggested, such an education should liberate from undue reliance upon scholastic or neo-scholastic systems, however useful and stimulating such systems may temporarily have proved. A lively society is a crab which constantly outgrows these shells. The Roman Church made a vast sacrifice when at the Council of Trent it tied itself to Thomist scholasticism, the Aristotelian basis of which, already shaken by the humanists, was then just about to be demolished by the new Natural Science. Again, though few systematizers did more to expand historiography than Marx, there are left few universities which still expect their students to operate solely, or even chiefly, within the Marxist terms of reference. This sentiment need have no political origins: it arises primarily from the desire to enlarge our intellectual kingdoms by a whole range of concepts, old and new, which Marx either neglected, or would have dismissed, or which scholarship and science had not a century ago attained. We fear, in an electronic age, to be tied to the exclusive use of a steam-engine. One might well experience a greater reverence toward some of the systematizers of our own day, especially perhaps toward Arnold Toynbee. Yet around none of these structures could a university school of history frame its teaching. If we happen to present Toynbee's synthesis, we can use it merely as a range of stimulating concepts; we present the many searching criticisms recently brought against it; we may present some of its rivals, Spengler, Sorokin and the rest. All these law-givers are Promethean; they vainly seek to storm Olympus. So far, none of them has been regarded by liberal posterity as possessing more than a highly relative validity. Said Fustel de Coulanges, "L'analyse c'est la nuit avant le jour de synthese." Perhaps so, yet each dawn seems apt to bring forth a fresh synthesis in some measure contradicting its predecessors. However impressive we find the latest issue, can we for a moment suppose that the synthesis to end all syntheses has at last arrived? May there always be a Prometheus in our midst, yet may we never put him where he would like to be - at the right hand of God! Once again, a historical education should liberate us from Messianic political cults of all kinds - should not merely liberate us, but make us the guardians and the liberators of society. The enslavers, though especially prominent in our own century, are a species well known to historians. Yet no society is so liberal and so balanced as to be immune from examples of this sinister tendency. So long as human discontent exists, there will arise a cheap credulity and a snatching at the easy millennium just around the corner of the future. Always to answer these aspirations there will often arise the doctrinaire activist, the power-addict, the Big Brother who preaches that the Earthly Paradise is to be entered for the asking. He imposes only one condition: "Follow me implicitly. Die Fahne hoch, die Reihen festgeschlossen. The New Order will last a thousand years. The end justifies


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the means and, since the end is the Earthly Paradise, I should therefore be entitled to liquidate you if you were so selfish and misguided as to oppose me." The peoples are perhaps most surely deterred from compliance by an active historical memory. The historian is in the best position to throw a tub of cold water over Big Brother. He should always be at hand to shout back in defiance. "I have seen you many times already. I have seen the immeasurable suffering which you bring upon your deluded followers and upon the rest of humanity. But I have never seen you even approaching the Heavenly Paradise. Above all, the end does not justify the means, if only because the means irresistibly shape the end. But moralizing apart, you do not and you cannot deliver the goods which you promise." This at least is the sort of answer a historian can make with confidence; it is his special function in society to analyse for realities, to strip off the false labels which politicians and propagandists fasten upon their wares. He is an inspector of political cargoes and he has plenty of experience to guide him. But he can never sleep securely, for political messianism occurs at the most unlikely times and places. It does not necessarily take the crude form to which recent history has accustomed us: that of the revolutionary nationalist seeking to conceal his identity beneath the trappings of a world-creed. It can occur as readily in the blind hubris of a politician thrown up by democratic processes. And who would have expected it from Machiavelli, himself a historian and normally capable of an admirably sardonic objectivity? Yet in the last chapter of The Prince he figures unblushingly as a member of the tribe. On his behalf we may only plead that his Italy furnished a provocation second to none. Inside the liberal democracies, the historically trained mind is nevertheless chiefly on guard against a somewhat different range of irrationalisms. In such societies, the men with grudges, the astigmatics, the unduly greedy tend to cancel out each other, whereas under politico-messianic tyranny they tend to work under one sinister directive. Yet anywhere such men remain active and pervasive. Up to a point they even have their uses, for they can keep us alert and supplement the efforts of society's more logical oppositionists. Nevertheless, when they sin too violently and too frequently against the truth, it would be disastrous if they found too few opponents armed with a trained judgement and a deep respect for facts. We accept as a commonplace the idea that the so-called "free" countries are now traversing the age of the half-truth, the easy slogan, the inaccurate label, the blanket-word which covers a multitude of meanings, the deliberate smear. Various potent factors have steadily augmented those tendencies during the twentieth century: the commercial motivation of the sleazy popular press, "turning forests into lies"; the political journals which "slant" each news-item to fit their own extremist ideologies; more recently, the usurpation of serious topics by the entertainment-industry through the media of radio

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and television. Against this tide of untruths and half-truths, the spread of sound historical knowledge should erect a double barrier. It should disseminate fuller and more balanced factual knowledge, and thus render the task of the perverter more difficult. More important, it should provide a mode of analysis by which people are trained to base judgements - or withhold judgments - upon the whole available evidence. Here is the method of the seminar and the laboratory as opposed to the wrangling of the bar-parlour - or the Bierkeller. As in the days of Socrates, so still to-day: it is unending battle. We strive to make men just in argument, not merely clever, not merely able to find arguments to back some prediscovered hypothesis, but intent rather to construct and to remodel hypotheses after an exhaustive and an equitable analysis of the facts. Beyond this, we seek in historical instruction to teach people to distinguish between primary evidence and mere accretion, to be agnostic toward human authority, to be endlessly suspicious of what they see in print, to keep their reverence for what truly deserves reverence. Stated thus baldly, these principles seem platitudinous enough, but their actual implementation in the classroom presents every teacher with a daily series of exacting, involved and far from prosaic tasks. In my experience, this part of the liberating process is best furthered by taking a "Special Subject", that is, some relatively restricted field (such as the High Renaissance in Italy, or the French Revolution, or Slavery and Secession in the United States) appointed to be studied in some detail by critical reference to a large corpus of printed documents. This type of study should, in my view, occur at some stage of every university historical syllabus. A fourth demon from which the Muse of History should free her devotees, one might call the Tyranny of the Century, or the Tyranny of the Local Milieu, defining this last term both spatially and temporally. Just as travel and study abroad liberate a man from merely local conventions, local xenophobia, local complacency, so historical study, which involves travel both in time and in space, should liberate us from modes of thought unduly governed by the values and fashions of our little milieu, should test and purify them, should distinguish between the parochial and the universal. I would at this point join forces with an American historian who three decades ago published an article ironically entitled Has the Past a Place in History1? and rather savagely castigated those American universities in which teaching and research tend to become confined by the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here, no doubt, he gave too little credit to the several distinguished schools of mediaeval studies in his own country, and to those many well-organized survey courses on Western Civilization which broaden the outlook of most serious students of history across the Atlantic. Yet even while we recognize that some Americans are irresistibly tempted to begin serious history in 1776, we might well proceed to turn a critical eye


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ipon our own performance, for we can boast no such excuses. Thanks to ihortage of time and the rigidities of the so-called Advanced Level examination, our sixth-form pupils too often receive a grounding in the political history of nineteenth-century Britain and Europe to the virtual exclusion of other periods, problems and places. Frequently indeed they ichieve a series of fixations which prevents them, on reaching the university, rom acclimatizing themselves to earlier periods, different approaches and Adder theatres. It must also be frankly acknowledged that university syllabuses exist under which students can contrive for three years to avoid my very devastating assault upon this horrid fixation. Tethered like goats apon a line scarcely three centuries long, they happily crop the lush grasses }f the meadow, shunning the sparse pastures and the long vistas of the hills. Mot merely do they miss the grandeur of big-scale history; they also imbibe false doctrines of historical causation. The nineteenth-century addict, ntent merely "to account for our modern world", fails lamentably to achieve even this lowly ambition. If, for example, he begins his serious British History in 1760, he omits most of the significant story of Crown, Parliament, Common Law, of Anglicanism, Romanism and Nonconformity. He omits also the vital foundations of British overseas development, the equally vital revolution of the seventeenth century, the bases of English insularity vis a vis the Continent, and the greater part of the living literary classics which have moulded our national life and character. The most hardened ultra-modernist could scarcely deny the serious character of these omissions for a man seeking historical comprehension, or in fact any deep comprehension, of modern Britain. Again, the history of civilization tends to proceed by Renaissances; an age turns back for inspiration not merely to its immediate predecessor but to some far earlier age. The pages of mediaeval and modern history are littered with these rebirths of Antiquity; the Carolingian revival of the eighth and ninth centuries, the humanist schools of Chartres and Orleans in the twelfth, the Aristotelian-Thomist renaissance of the thirteenth, the humanism of the fourteenth and fifteenth, the recoveries of Greek art and science at various times and places. These creative retrospections are in fact merely high points of a process in some degree operative at all periods, a process to be placed among the norms of historical causation. In short, Renaissance affords another powerful incentive to escape from the prison of recent history. It also haunts the insomnia of many heads of history departments who, like the present writer, are rendered powerless by timetable-considerations to provide their pupils with an adequate conspectus of Greek and Roman civilization! Still further, it might well be argued that in many spheres our Western Civilization reached its apogee from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century: if historical study does not afford increased understanding of such

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a period, it abrogates one of its obvious functions. How important in the age of the Common Man, to place our students alongside the uncommon men, beside Leonardo, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Milton, Rembrandt, Moliere, Voltaire, Mozart, Goethe and Beethoven. How doubly and trebly precious in this mid-twentieth century has become their power to illumine our leaden spirits! How valiantly they strive - mightier in death than in life - to dam back the proletarian and barbarian subcultures which still threaten to drown the landscape of the West! Narrowness of temporal perspective is only one aspect of the localism to which I referred. Linguistic knowledge will be universally admitted as one of the broadest gateways of escape at the disposal of the historian. But among recent British and American history students linguistic knowledge has diminished, is diminishing and obviously ought to be augmented. It is common now to receive freshmen of sound general ability, with an alleged record of several years' study of French, who nevertheless fail to translate even the broad sense of simple passages from French historians. As for serious knowledge of Latin, most history departments must now write it off, except perhaps as a requirement for their dwindling bands of mediaeval specialists. The localism of our equipment is too often matched by the insularities of our approach. In British sixth forms, universities and textbooks there lingers an over-concentration uponpolitical history, strangely out of harmony with the broadening perspectives of modern scholarship. Going off in 1953 to teach seventeenth-century Europe in an American university, the present writer sensed with relief that nobody any longer expected him to devote more time to the Spanish Succession Problem than to Galileo or Newton. Returning thence to teach a free and independent syllabus at the newly-chartered University of Hull, he felt an almost malicious pleasure in redressing this British unbalance toward politics. Yet by that time there should have remained nothing alarming, nothing even original, in stressing the rise of modern science rather than the foreign policy of Louis XIV. The choice of questions even at the Advanced Level should likewise be widened in order to permit some such experimentation and flexibility in the teaching of sixth forms. If the enthusiasm of my own students for cultural and scientific history be any measure of the younger generation, we may succeed in revitalizing many periods by some fairly sweeping changes of emphasis. In any event, we deserve to be called insular laggards if we fail to present history as Total History, as the record and analysis of any or all the activities of mankind. I would finally urge that historical study finds a justification as a special means of liberation from introspective selfhood. In the rotund dictum of Samuel Johnson, "Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant or the future predominate over the


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present, advances us in the dignity of thinkingbeings." Much more recently Arnold Toynbee has held historical knowledge to be essentially a creation of "disinterested curiosity", a unique quality of the human mind with a particular spiritual value of its own, since it forms one of the ways by which we begin to "transcend our self-centredness". He would no doubt agree that any of the great humane and scientific disciplines can impart some such disinterested curiosity. That arising from historical studies might nevertheless be regarded as possessing a unique warmth and intensity. So long as the historian is paying disinterested attention to his field, he is challenged to transcend the bonds of selfhood, to enter the lives of former peoples with an imaginative sympathy, to create a sense of brotherhood which breaks the power of death and decay. Humani nihil alienum can serve as his maxim: nothing that concerns mankind is a matter for indifference. As he contemplates the past of man he finds room often enough for pity, more seldom for outright condemnation, almost never for condescending superiority or complacent scorn. He knows that almost all we have and enjoy comes not from ourselves but from our predecessors. The dead offer us their adventures for our entertainment, their achievements for our inspiration, their sins and errors for our example, their righteousness for our redemption. Through history, our communal memory, they live again. Without their lives and their knowledge we should be savages. The summit of historical wisdom was attained by the mediaeval author who said, "we are but dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants." If in some directions we can see a little further than our forerunners, this is due not to our own stature, but to the stature of the human race. Of all the values to be gained from historical study, this one bears the closest analogy with some values of the higher religions, since it breaks with self-centredness, teaches men a loving curiosity and establishes an almost sacramental bond between the generations which have gone before and those still to come. Let us by all means include the unborn within our fraternity, since no man who has reflected much upon the past can avoid also being haunted by an inquisitiveness concerning their fate, and by the hope that their historians will in turn find us worthy of transmission to a remoter posterity. Should this quasi-religious sense of brotherhood meet with a sense of Fatherhood, the sense of a personal Deity, so much the better; but here is surely the point where the teacher of history must, like Virgil in the Divine Comedy, leave his charge to a more ethereal guide. When he seeks to show the hand of God in history he becomes presumptuous; he is the termite seeking to explore the mysteries of the atoms and the stars. All the same, his principles of evidence may well promote a modest optimism. Francis Quarles achieved no fame as a historian, but he may strike a sympathetic chord in not a few of our tribe:

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Late Monasticism and the Reformation My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on Judge not the play before the play is done: Her plot hath many changes: every day Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.

Even the simplest Christian enthusiast should find a modest field in History if he follows some of the early Christian Fathers (and also Erasmus with other Renaissance humanists) who saw Graeco-Roman culture as providentially linked with Judaism in order to pave the way for the eventual triumphs of Christianity. Plato was a clear forerunner, though Aristotle was not, even though medieval Christians imagined him to be a divine champion of Christian knowledge and method. This blunder began to be apparant even with Copernicus. But meanwhile the true allies of Christianity, Greek and Roman, had been successfully motivated in their creative roles. The Greek lingua franca, at first in the hands of Paul, that great hellenized Jew, had created the Mediterranean focus of Christianity. Then the pax romana opened out that first expansion across western Europe, which led to the oceans of the world. With such immense scenarios historians can still play around though with commendable caution they have not yet introduced them into our university courses.

Index AdamofUsk, 158 Adams, Augustyne, 73 Addington, Great (Merchants.), 140 Addyson, Christopher, 148 Adrian VI, pope, 43 Adwick-le-Street (Yorks.), 191 Aldeburgh (Suffolk), 112 Aldington (Kent), 65n Men, John, 72 Alexander, Canon, 59 Alexander of Hales, 18 Allen, John, archbishop of Dublin, 46 —, William, Cardinal, 131 Allerton, Ralph, 107 Amersham (Bucks.), 114,124 Amicable Loan, rebellion against (1525), 47-48 Andrew, William, 142 Anglicanism, 102 Anjou, Henry, duke of, later Henry III, King of France, 187 Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, 6n, 61,68 anticlericalism, and English Reformation, 138-40, 151-76, 184 —, pre-Tudor, 152-60 —, see also Erasmus Antwerp, 119, 149, 154 apprentices, anticlericalism among, 184 Ash Green (Suffolk), 69 Ashford (Kent), 111 Ashton under Lyne (Lanes.), 121 Aske, Robert, 133 Askew, Anne, 115,148 Astle, Thomas, 1-2 Atcham (Salop), 119 Auffen, see Haughfen Augustinian canons, see Butley, priory Augustinian friars, 144, 149 Averey family, 197 Awffen, see Haughfen Aylmer, John, bishop of London, 130 Ayscough, William, bishop of Salisbury, 156 Bacon, Roger, 18 Baines, Ralph, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 118 Baldwin, William, 164 Bale, John, 141, 149, 163, 164

Banbury (Oxon.), 138 Barbaro, Daniel, 125 Barclay, Alexander, 161 Baret, Henry, 6, 28, 52, 76, 77-78 Barfield (Suffolk), 63n Barfoote, Johanne, 73 Barham (Suffolk), 63n Barker, Robert, 141 Barlow, Jerome, 164 Barnack (Northants.), 146 Barnard, Mr Doctor, 142 Barnardston, Sir Thomas, 62 Barnes, Robert, 149 Barnwell (Cambs.), 18 Barnwell (Northants.), 142 Baron, James, 140 Barrow (Suffolk), 63n Barrowden (Northants.), 146 Barton, Andrew and Robert 19, 26-27 —, Elizabeth, the Maid of Kent, 20, 65-66 Bassingbourne, Henry, 4, 10, 34n, 52, 75 Bastyan, William, 71 Batt.Alyn, 138 Bawdesey, John, 10, 11, 71, 78, 80 —, Walter, 76, 77 Bawdsey (Suffolk), 12, 15n, 22, 26, 35 Baxterly (Warwicks.), 118 Beccles (Suffolk), 63n Becon, Thomas, 118-19,124 Bedford, 114 —, earls of, see Russell Bedingfield, Sir Henry, 123 Bekett, Thomas, 71 Bembo, Pietro, Cardinal, 88 Bene, Thomas, 72 Benhall (Suffolk), 12n, 51, 59, 7In Bensty,John, 77 Bentley, Great (Essex), 111 Bergholt, East (Suffolk), 112 Berie, William, 145 Berkshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 112, 116, 123 Bernher, Augustine, 118 Bestowe, Robert, 72 Belts, Richard, 25 Bevyrley, William, 26n Bible, humanist approach to, 90-93, 94 —, Luther as biblical theologian, 92-98

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—, vernacular translations, 91; English, 141-42, 171; German, 95, 96 Bigod, Sir Francis, 164 Billericay (Essex), 111 Billing, Great (Northants.), 139 Bilney, Thomas, 6n, 21, 59 Binsley, William, 134-35,136 Birchington (Kent), 113 Bird, Nicholas, 118 bishops, anticlericalism directed against, 153, 156, 162 Blaunchflor, Henry, 77 Blomefield, Francis, 2, 3 Bocher,John, 77 Bocking (Essex), 111 Bockyng, Dr Edward, 65n, 66n Bodmin (Cornwall), 122-23, 186, 189 Bolton (Lanes.), 121 Bonner, Edmund, bishop of London, 104, 107, 108n, 147 Booth, William, bishop of Lichfield, 156 Boston (Lines.), 112, 113, 114 Botler family, 197 Boulogne, 61 Bourbon, Charles, duke of, 48 boy bishops, 190 Boyton (Suffolk), 1 In, 12, 34, 49n Bozeat (Northants.), 146 Bradford, John, 107, 110, 121, 124, 148 Bradford on Avon (Wilts.), 116 Brampton (Northants.), 137 Brandon, family, 21 —, Charles, 1st duke of Suffolk, 31, 32, 43,48,61,71, 115n —, —, visits Butley priory, 15, 21, 5152,54-55, 68 —, Henry, earl of Lincoln, 6n, 61 —, Katherine, duchess of Suffolk, 115 —, Mary, duchess of Suffolk, see Mary Tudor Brant, Sebastian, The Ship of Fools, 161 Brantham Hall (Suffolk), 57n, 62n Braunston (Northants.), 146 Breamore (Bromere) (Hants.), 3, 25n Brest, 29 Brighton, 113 Brightwell Hall (Suffolk), 62n Brington (Northants.), 144-45 Brinklow, Henry, 164 Bristol, 102, 111, 115, 116 —, diocese of, 116 Brittany, 29,40 Brockhole (Northants.), 145n

Brodsworth (Yorks.), 193 Brome (Suffolk), 62n Bromehill (Suffolk), 54 Brommer, Robert, 15, 22, 25-26 Brooke, Austeyn, 72 —, Thomas, 72 Brown, Walter, 35 Bryghtwell,John, 73 Buckingham, dukes of, see Stafford Buckinghamshire, Lollardy, 124, 141 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 114, 123, 124 Bugenhagen, Johann, 149 Bull, Richard, 34 Bullinger, Johann Heinrich, 117, 124 Bungay (Suffolk), 3In Bungay, Thomas, 34n Burckhardt, Jacob, 87 Burghley, Lord, see Cecil Burwell, Edmund, 71 —, William, 72 Bury (Lanes.), 121 Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk), 111 —, abbey, 13,60,75 —, St Petronilla, 60 Butley (Suffolk), manor, 12 —, parish church, 67, 76 —, priory, 1-84 Byngley, Robert, 72 Calais, conference at (1521), 39 —, conference at (1535), 69 —, English armies at, 29, 30, 40-41, 43 —, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn visit (1532), 6n, 61 — loss of, 132 —Protestantism (1520-58), 113 Cambridge, 17, 18, 114 Cambridgeshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 114 Campeggio, Lorenzo, Cardinal, 37, 55n Campsall (Yorks.), 196n Campsey (Suffolk), 13 Campsey Ashe (Suffolk), 16 Cancell, Ralph, 56 Canterbury, Christ Church, 7n, 65n —, diocese of, 109, 168 —, St Augustine's abbey, 51 Capel, Sir William, 8 Capel (Suffolk), l l n , 49 —, church, 76, 77 Capon, John, alias Salcot, 49n Cappe, Dr Thomas, 39, 66n Cardon, Richard, 22, 25

Index Carew, family, 122 —, Richard, Survey of Cornwall, 122, 186-89 Carlton, George, 59n, 75 Carkon (Northants.), 141 Carre, Dr Nicholas, 9, 39, 45, 49 Carter, Richard, 142 Casterton, Great (Rutland), 145 Castiglione, Baldassare, Book of the Courtier, 88 Cave family, 147 Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 104 celibacy and incontinence, among clergy and religious, 22, 140, 156, 163 Chaldon (Surrey), 109 Chambers, John, bishop of Peterborough, 135 chantry priests, 139, 153 chaplains, 155, 156 Chapmans (Suffolk), 53n, 62n Chard (Somerset), 109 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, 39, 40,48,61, 131, 178 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 153, 154, 155 —, Canterbury Tales, 155, 168 Chaundeler, Austeyn, 73 —,John, 73 Chaundler, Henry, 73 Chenies (Bucks.), 124 Cheshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 117, 124 Chester, diocese of, 121 Chich (Essex), 22,31 Chichester, 113 —, bishops of see Moleyns; Pecock —, Sir John, 110 children, see education; schoolboys Chillesford (Chesylford) (Suffolk), lln, 12, 14, 49, 58, 72n Chippenham, Robert, 7, 52, 71, 80 Chipping Campden (Glos.), 115 Christian II, King of Denmark, 43 Christian humanism, 87, 92-93, 97, 162 church, pre-Reformation, see anticlericalism; magic and paganism; piety church buildings, ruin of, 137 church courts, and anticlericalism, 168, 174-75 Church Langton (Leics.), 147 Clayburgh, Dr William, 45 Clement VII, Pope, 5, 43, 46, 58, 66 Clement, John, 109

211

clergy, —, letters, of Yorkshire parish clergy, 191-97 —, see also anticlericalism; celibacy and incontinence Clerke, Thomas, 72 cloth towns, Protestantism (1520-58), 110, 112, 115, 116 Cockes,John, 142 Coggeshall (Essex), 111 Coke, Richard, 143 Cokett, William, 73 Colchester, John, 71 Colchester (Essex), 102,108,111 Cold Higham (Northants.), 137 Coldham Hall (Suffolk), 63n Coletjohn, 90, 157 Collingbourne (Wilts.), 116 Colte, George, 62 Colyn, John, alias Thetford, see Thetford Compton, Sir William, 41 Comte, Auguste, 87 Conde, Louis, prince of, 187, 188 Conisborough (Yorks.), 195, 196 Constantine, George, 119 Cooke, Ann, 148 —, Christopher, 123 —, Johanne, 73 —, Thomas, 17, 34, 35n, 44, 58 —, William, 72 Cookeson, Denys, 72 —.William, 14n, 71 Corby (Lines.), 149 Cornwall, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 103, 113, 122 —, see also Bodmin Cornwallis, Sir John, 40n, 62 Corson, see Curson Cotton, Richard, 119 Couckeson, William, 14 Courtenay, Edward, earl of Devonshire, 183 Coventry, Protestantism (1520-58), 102, 107, 111, 117 —, martyrs, 118, 147 Coverdale, Miles, 141 Cowarde, William, 192 Crampton, Henry, 71,75 Cranbrook (Kent), 111 Crane, Robert, 62 Cranmer, Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, 19, 66, 129, 133, 148 Crewe,John, 15n, 71 Cromwell, Thomas, 54, 133, 145, 149

212


—, and anticlericalism, 159, 160, 161, 165 —, and Butley priory, 8, 11, 15, 67, 74 Crowley, Robert, 154-55, 164 Cuckeson, William, 14 Culworth (Northants.), 139 Cumberland, Protestantism (1520-58), 124 "cunning" and "wise" men and women, 171, 175 Curson (Corson), Sir Robert (Baron Curson), 40n, 62, 63 Cyprian, St, 191 Dale, Thomas, 143 Dartford (Kent), 112 Dauke, Elenor, 142 Dawson, Alexander, 72 Dayle, Edward, 142 Dean, Forest of, 115 Deane (Lanes.), 121 Debenham, John, 10,80 Debenham (Suffolk), 12, 7In Dedham (Essex), 111 Delapre (Northants.), 137, 140, 147 Denmark, 43, 69n Dennington (Suffolk), 62n Denny, Richard, 71, 75 Denston, Sir John, 76,77 Denyngton, Henry, 71 —, James, alias Hyllington, 7n, 8, 11, 71,80 Derby, earls of, see Stanley Derbyshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 117, 119, 124 Derker, Thomas, 73 Deryng, John, 65n, 66n Devereux, Walter, Lord Ferrers, 119 Devizes (Wilts.), 116 Devon, Protestantism (1520-58), 110, 113, 122 Devonshire, earls of, see Courtenay Dickleburgh (Norfolk), 63n Dion Cassius, 188 Dodnash (Suffolk), 44, 47 Dominican friars, 144 Doncaster, 194 Dover, 30, 51, 113 Dovercourt (Essex), 112 Dowman, John, 44-45 Draycot, Anthony, 118 Drewry, Sir William, 62 Drue, William, 73 Drury [Droury], Sir Robert, 62, 63

Dubois, Pierre, 158, 159 Dudley, Edmund, 25, 159, 160 —, family 113 —, Lord Guilford, 183 —, John, duke of Northumberland, 160n Dunwich (Suffolk), 112 Dursley (Glos.), 115 Dutch heretics, burning of (1535), 21, 68 Dykar, Robert, 39 Earls Barton (Northants.), 146 East Bergholt (Suffolk), 112 Easton Neston (Northants.), 136 Eccles (Lanes.), 121 ecclesiastical courts, see church courts Eck,John, 96 education, historical study at universities, 199-208 —, Luther on, 97-98 —, monastic, 17 —, see also schoolboys; schoolmasters Edward VI, King of England, rumours of survival into Mary's reign, 183 Egmont, Count, 179 Elizabeth I, Queen of England, as Princess Elizabeth, 68, 123 Ellis,—, 53 Ely, bishops of, see West —, diocese of, 114 Emlyn.John, 136 Empson, Richard, 25 enclosure, by monasteries, 16 Erasmus, Desiderius, 89, 120, 147 —, and anticlericalism, 88, 89, 91, 93, 157, 162 —, and biblical scholarship, 90, 91, 95, 120 —, Paraphrases, 119, 137 Erastianism, 151, 157-61, 164, 174 Essex, anticlericalism, 169 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 104, 110, 111, 112, 123 —, see also Chich; Colchester; Lees; New Hall; Old Holt; St Osyth; Waltham Abbey Eton (Bucks.), 123 Eve, Robert, 73 Evil May Day riots (1517), 35, 184 Exeter, 113, 122 Exmouth (Devon), 113 Eye (Suffolk), 25, 52 Eyward, Robert and Rose, 142

Index Fale, Robert, 17, 72 —, William, 72 Farndon (Northants.), 139 Faversham (Kent), 111, 113 Felixstowe (Suffolk), priory, 54 Ferdinand, Archduke, later Holy Roman Emperor, 48 Fereby, Bartholomew, 72 Fermor, Richard, 136 Ferrers, Lord, see Devereux Finborough (Suffolk), 12, 14, 7In Fines, John, Biographical Register of Early English Protestants, 105-6 Finsbury Field, see London Fish, Simon, 163 Fisher, John, bishop of Rochester, 21, 157 Fitzwilliam family, 148 Flodden, battle of (1513), 19, 20, 30-31 Forest of Dean, see Dean Fortescue, Sir John, 159,161 Fotheringhay (Northants.), 147, 148 Fowkes,John, 142 —, Sir Thomas, 139 Fox, Edward, bishop of Hereford, 159 —John, 73 —, Robert, 195 Foxe, John, Acts and Monuments, 105, 108, 109, 111, 118, 136, 148-49; on John Kurde 134; on Laurence Saunders, 119, 147 —, and anticlericalism, 164 —, scriptural plays by, 141 Framlingham (Suffolk), 43 France, carnival and satire, 190 —, humanism, 88 —, kings of, see Francis I; Henry III; Louis XII —, relations with England: under Henry VIII, 19,28-30,40-41,43,51,61; under Mary, 131 —, Wars of Religion, 187-88 —, see also Calais Francis I, King of France, 39, 48, 61 Frankfurt, 119 friars, anticlericalism directed against, 153, 154, 156 —, and Protestantism, 144, 149 Frith, John, 164 Furnys, Richard, 193 Furton, Thomas, 72 Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis, 202 Gaddesby (Leics.), 114

213

Gardiner, Stephen, bishop of Winchester, 6n, 54, 60, 109, 159 Gascoign, Humphrey, 192 Gascoigne, Thomas, 156 Gawge,John, 73 Geddington (Northants.), 142 Gedgrave (Suffolk), 7n, l l n , 12, 14, 16, 34, 50, 72n —, chapel, 76 Germany, anticlericalism, 171,172 —, carnival and satire, 190 —, Reformation, 88, 93-94, 96-98, 149 —, see also Luther Gerningham Qernegan], Sir John, 62 —, Sir Richard, 40n Giffords (Suffolk), 63n Gilpin, Bernard, 111 Gipswiche, see Ipswich Glanvil, Ranulph, 14 Glemham, Sir John, 52, 55 Glemham Megna (Suffolk), 12, 71n Gloucester, 101, 115, 116 —, diocese of, 116 Gloucestershire, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 103, 108, 112, 115-16, 123 —, see also Bristol Glover, Robert, John and William, 118, 119 Gloys, James, 155 God spede the Plough, 154 Godly dyalogue between Pyers Plowman, and a popish preest, A, 154 Godsalve (Godsave), Sir John, 75 —, Thomas, 49, 75 Gold, Henry, 66n Goodwin, John, 144, 149 Goolde, William, 77 Grace, Richard, 142-43 Grantham (Lines.), 114 Gravesend (Kent), 112 Great, place names beginning with, see under second element Greece, mock battle of Turkish boys, 188 Greek (language), 89, 90, 91, 94-95, 96, 98 Green, lohn, 22-23,59 Greenwich, 26, 43, 64 Grendon (Northants.), 146 Grene, Mawde, 139 Grey, Henry, 77 —, Lady Jane, 113 Grimsthorpe (Lines.), 114,115

214


Guicciardini, Francesco, 88 guilds, parish, 164 Guines (France), 30 Gymbold, William, alias Woodbridge, see Woodbridge Hadleigh (Suffolk), 111 Haigh, Christopher, on anticlericalism, 151, 152, 161, 163, 164-69, 170-73 —, on English Reformation, 101-5, 110, 111, 113, 120, 129 Hales Hall (Norfolk), 63n Halifax (Yorks.), 112, 121 Hall, Edward, 164 Halley's comet, 60n Halowtree, Robert, 73 Hampole (Yorks.), priory, 191, 192, 196n,197 Hampshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 109, 113, 124 Hancock, Thomas, 109 Hare, Thomas, 34 Harrington, Lucy, 148 Harrington (Northants.), 147 Harwich (Essex), 112 Harwiche, John, 71 Hastings (Sussex), 113 Haughfen [Auffen, Awffen], family, 25n, 72, 73, 75 Hawstead (Suffolk), 62n Hebrew, study of, 95, 98 Heigham, Clement, 63 Helmingham (Suffolk), 62n Henry III, King of France, 187 Henry IV, King of England, 14n, 158 Henry VII, King of England, 3, 6, 15, 27, 157, 158 Henry VIII, King of England, 21 —, and Lincolnshire rebels (1536), 113 —, mentioned in register of Butley priory: church affairs, 41, 64; foreign affairs, 6n, 20, 28, 29-30, 31, 40, 43, 61, 69; Succession Act (1534), 61-63, 65; taxation, 41, 42; other mentions, 58, 68 —, and placing of Great Bible in churches, 141 —, relations with clergy, 158, 161 —, resistance to doctrinal change, 133, 137 Henry, Prince of Wales, 26 Henry Grace de Dieu (ship), 32 Hensen, T., 148-49

Herbert, George, 99 Hereford, 119, 120 —, bishops of see Fox; Scory Herolt, Johannes, 192n Hervey, John, 63 Hessus, Eobanus, 97 Hethe, Robert, 73 —, Thomas, 78 Heveningham, Sir John, 62 Heyward, Marget, 73 Higden, Ranulf, 160 Higham (Northants.), 142 Higher Criticism, 93, 95 Hill, William, 72 historical study, purposes of, 199-208 Holland, Roger, 121 Hollesley (Suffolk), 16, 50 Hollesley Bay (Suffolk), 49n Holme, Wilfrid, 164 Holt, John, bishop of Lydda, 44 Hoode, Richard, 72 Hooper, John, bishop of Gloucester, 116 Hopkins, Richard, 107 Hopton, Sir Arthur, 62, 63 Horkesley (Essex), 111 Horncastle (Lines.), 114 Houghton, Great (Northants.), 139 Hove (Sussex), 113, 123 Howard family, 21 Howard, Lord Edmund, 184 —, Sir Edward, 26, 28, 29 —, Henry, earl of Surrey, 57 —, Thomas, 2nd duke of Norfolk, 1, 3n, 35 —, —, as earl of Surrey, 30-31 —, —, funeral of, 1,21,43-44 —, Thomas, 3rd duke of Norfolk, 1, 15-16, 29, 48, 69 —, —, as earl of Surrey, 40-42 —, —, visits Butley priory, 15, 22, 50, 53,57 Hoxne (Suffolk), 58,68,81 Hubarde, Henry, 63 Hudson, John, dean of Doncaster, 193 Hull, 111, 112, 121, 126, 128 humanism, and anticlericalism (England), 88, 157, 162 —, Martin Luther and, 87-99 Hunger ford (Berks.), 156 Hunne, Richard, 151, 152 Hurlestone, Randall, 165 Hurst, Geoffrey, 121 Huscroft, Christopher, 196

Index

215

Hutten, Ulrich von, 94 Hyllyngton, James, alias Denyngton, see Denyngton Hynde, Augustine, alderman, 180 Hythe(Kent), 113

Knevett, Sir Thomas, 28n, 29 Knott,John, 72 Knox.John, 110, 111, 114n, 124, 164 Kurde,John, 134-36 Kyng, Henry, 73

I playne Piers which cannot flatter, 154 Ide,John, 72 incontinence, see celibacy and incontinence Ingram, John, 73 inns, used by Protestant congregations, 108 Ipswich [Gipswiche, Yppisswyche], Thomas, 11-12,80 Ipswich, 16, 22, 25,53, 57, 58, 62n —, Holy Trinity, 17 —, iconoclasm at (1533), 60 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 102, 111, 112 Isham (Northants.), 138 Islip (Oxon.), 123 Ives, John, In, 2

LaRochelle, 187-88 Lacock, William, 3, 16 Lambe, Thomas, 10, 50 Lamport (Northants.), 139 Lancashire, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 103, 113, 120-21, 128, 129 —, Puritan evangelism, Elizabethan, 173 Langland, William, Vision of Piers Plowman, 152, 153, 154-55 —, writings derived from or related to, 153-55, 169 Langley, Edmund, 76 Larke, Thomas, 44 Latimer, Hugh, bishop of Worcester, 110, 114n, 115, 118, 157 Lavas, Walter, 72 Lavenham (Suffolk), 62n Laxfield (Suffolk), 63n LeNeve, Peter, 1 , 2 , 3 Leche,John, 73 Lee, Edward, 63 —, Edward, archbishop of York, 10 —, Dr Rowland, 54 Leeds, 121, 126, 128 Lees (Essex), 32n Lefevre d'Etaples, Jacques, 95 Legge, Thomas, 73 Leicester, 21,58, 114 Leipzig Disputations (1519), 96 Leiston (Suffolk), abbey, 13, 16, 23, 59, 75 Leland,John, 154 Lenham (Kent), 111 Leo X, Pope, 32, 33 Letheringham (Suffolk), 50n, 52, 62n Lever, Thomas, 117,164 Lewis, Joyce, 118, 119 licences to preach, 144, 145 Lichfield, 117-18, 119 —, bishops of, see Baines; Booth —.cathedral, 119, 147 Lille (France), 30n Lincoln, 114 —, bishops of, see Longland —.diocese of, 106,107,113-15,134 —, earls, of, see Brandon

Jack up Lande, 154 James IV, King of Scotland, 30, 31 James V, King of Scotland, 61 Jarnac, battle of (1569), 187 Jay, Thomas, 73 Jaye,John, 72 Jennings, —, 2 John of Paris, 158 Johnson, Samuel, 206—7 Jubbe, Augustyn, 77 Kedlington (Suffolk), 62n Kelmarsh (Northants.), 137 Kempster, Austeyn, 73 Kempster, John, 73 Kent, anticlericalism, pre-Tudor, 156 —, Maid of, 20, 65-66 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 103, 110, 111, 112, 113, 123, 124; wills as evidence for, 126, 127, 128 —, Roger, 56, 57 —, Wyatt's rebellion, 177 —, see also Canterbury; Dover Keryche, Robert, 77 Kethe, William, 165 Kidlington (Oxon.), 123 Killigrew family, 122 King's Cliffe (Northants.), 146 King's Lynn (Norfolk), 112, 113 Kislingbury (Northants.), 138

216


Lincolnshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 103, 112, 113, 114, 115; wills as evidence for, 126, 127 —, rebellion (1536), 113 Lisle, Sir William, 53 literature, influence of Langland, Wycliffe and Chaucer and works derived from them, 153-55 Liverpool, 121 Lodbrooke, Thomas, 144-45 Loftus, William, 143 Lollardy, 112, 149, 154, 155, 173, 174 —, Buckinghamshire, 124, 141 —.Coventry, 117 —, Gloucestershire and Forest of Dean, 115 —, Lincoln diocese, 114,124 —, London, 149 —, Newbury, 112 —, Northamptonshire, 136, 141, 143, 146 London, Dr John, 148 —, Thomas of, 77 London, All Hallows, Bread Street, 147 —, anticlericalism, 165, 167, 169, 174, 175 —, Austin friars, 149 —, bishops, of, see Aylmer; Bonner; Stokesley —, Carthusians, 23 —, Elsyng Spital, 44 —, Evil May Day riot (1517), 35 —, diocese of, 169 —,—, church courts, 168,175 —, —, Protestantism (1520-58), 106, 109 —, execution of Maid of Kent (1534), 66 —, Finsbury Field, battle, of, 177-90 —, Inns of Court, Protestantism, 185 —, port of London, Protestantism, 112 —, propaganda-plays, 143, 144 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 102, 103, 108, 112-13, 123, 124, 146; wills as evidence for, 127; see also, London, Finsbury Field, battle of —, St Anthony's school, Threadneedle Street, 181, 185 —, St Bartholomew, Smithfield, 44 —,—, churchyard, 185 —, St Paul's cathedral, 28, 42, 144 —, St Paul's school, 181, 185 —, St Stephen, Coleman Street, 67

—, schools, 181, 185 —, Smithfield, 55; see also London, St Bartholomew —, sweating sickness (1528), 54 —, Tower of London, 29 —, visit of Emperor Charles V (1522), 40 —, see also Greenwich; Southwark; Westminster Long Melford (Suffolk), 62n Longland, John, bishop of Lincoln, 114, 124 Louis XII, King of France, 4, 32 Lowick (Northants.), 141-42 Lowthe, William, 7n, 32n Lubeck, 20,69 Lumley, Lord, 19 Luther, Martin, 87-99, 149, 164, 170, 174 Lychfeld, Robert, 76 Lychfelde, Edmund, 76 Lydgate, John, 191 Lydney (Glos.), 115 Lyhart, Walter, bishop of Norwich, 156 Lyme Regis (Dorset), 109, 113 Lyndwood, William, Provinciale, 17-18 Lynne, Walter, 165 Lyon, Richard (bailiff), 16, 69 —, Richard (servant), 16n, 71 Machiavelli, Niccolo, 88, 94, 203 Mackarell, Matthew, 44 magic and paganism, in preReformation church, 92, 171-72, 175 Maidstone (Kent), 111 Mallyng, John, 71 Mancetter (Warwicks.), 118 Manchester, 121 Maners, John, 71 Manning, Thomas, alias Sudbourne/ Sudbury, 7n, 8, 11, 15n, 20n, 55, 67, 74 —, —, election as prior of Butley, 4, 56-57,80-81 Mannyng, Robert, 73 —, Thomas (bailiff), 13 —, Thomas (barber), 13,72 Map, Walter, 152 Mar, Edward, 71 Margaret, duchess of Savoy, 30 Marr (Yorks.), 195 Marsh, George, 121 Marshall, William, 159 Marsiglio of Padua, 151, 158, 159, 161 Martin, Thomas, 1, 2

Index Martyn,John, 149 martyrs, Protestant, 116, 129, 165 —, Henrician, 21, 59, 68, 107 —, Marian, 103, 107, 116-19, 132, 134-36, 147-48 Marx, Karl, 202 Mary I, Queen of England, and battle of Finsbury Field, 177, 178-79, 183-84 —, marriage to Philip of Spain, 177, 178-79 —, personal influence on Reformation, 130-32 Mary Tudor, Queen of France, later duchess of Suffolk, 4, 6n, 32, 52-53, 60,61 —, visits Butley priory, 15, 21, 23, 33, 51-52,54-55 Master, Richard, 65n Mathewe, Johanne, 73 Mawger, Robert, 192 Maximilian, Holy Roman Emperor, 18, 79 May, Dr William, 66n Mears Ashby (Northants.), 146 Melanchthon, Philip, 93-94, 149 Melford, William, 9, 44, 47 Mellor.John, 77 Melton, Dr William, 157 Melton (Suffolk), 10,50 Melton-on-the-Hill (Yorks.), 191, 192 Mendham, Sir John, 76,77 Mendlesham (Suffolk), 112 Mersshe, Robert, 73 Merstham (Surrey), 109 Metcalfe, Denis, alias Rychemount, see Rychemount Metham family, 196 Mettingham (Suffolk), 2n, 50n, 51 Mexborough (Yorks.), 195 Michiele, —, 108 Middlesex, anticlericalism, 169 Middleton (Lanes.), 121 Milton (Northants.), 148 mock battles, among schoolboys, 122-23, 177-90 Moleyns, Adam, bishop of Chichester, 156 Molton, South (Devon), 109-10 monasteries, see Butley priory Montmorency, Anne, due de, 178 Moone, Peter, 164 More, Sir Thomas, 119, 124, 155, 157, 160,162-63, 191 Moreton, Richard, 144

217

Morgane, Christopher, 142 Morison, Sir Richard, 164 Morlaix (France), 40 Moryson, Richard, 66n Motte, William, 193 Moulton (Northants.), 146 Mounteagle, barons, see Stanley Munday, Thomas, 72 Netherlands, see Antwerp; Dutch heretics Nettlestead (Suffolk), 57n Nevell, William, 72 New Hall (Essex), 52 Newbury (Berks.), 112, 116 Newcastle upon Tyne, 111 Newent (Glos.), 115 Newyll, William, 77,78 Nicolles, John, 142 Nix, Richard, bishop of Norwich, 6n, 21,32,34,41,61,66,68, 112 —, and Butley priory, 35, 55-56, 81; visitations, 8-9, 11, 39,49 Noailles, Antoine de, 178 —, Francois de, later bishop of Dax, 177-79 Norfolk, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 103, 112, 113 —, see also Dickleburgh; Hales Hall; King's Lynn; Norwich; St Benet's Hulme; Thetford; Walsingham; West Somerton; Winterton; Wymondham; Yarmouth Norfolk, dukes of, see Howard Northampton, archdeaconry of, 126, 134,146 —, martyrdom of John Kurde (1557), 134 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 114, 142, 144-45, 147, 149; wills as evidence for, 146 —, St Andrew's priory, 135 —, St Giles, 134, 135, 138 Northamptonshire, Protestantism, 106, 114,133-49 —, wills as evidence for, 126, 127, 146 Northumberland, dukes of, see Dudley Norton Davy (Northants.), 139 Norwich, John, 8, 9, 10, 11, 35, 52, 71, 80 Norwich, 3, 57 —, bishops of, see Lyhart; Nix; Southfield —, cathedral, 10, 148

218


—.diocese of, 21,66, 106, 112, 167, 168; see also Butley priory —, Protestantism (1520-58), 59, 111, 123, 126, 127-28 Nottinghamshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 126 Nutfield (Surrey), 109 Oakham (Rutland), 114,139,141, 145n,146 Occam, William of, 158,159 Ochino, Bernardino, 148 Old, Dr John, 119 Old Holt (Essex), 62n Orford, Thomas, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17, 22, 35, 49-50 Orford (Suffolk), 16, 22, 34, 48, 49, 112 —, friary, 1 In, 16, 50 organs, at Butley priory, 28, 66 Orton, Robert, 136 Oulton (Suffolk), 63 Oundle (Northants.), 114, 136, 137, 142, 143-44, 148-49 Oxburgh, Nicholas, 7n, 10, 23, 52, 71, 80 Oxford, 18-19, 114, 116 —, Cardinal College, 47, 58 —, Magdalen College, 116 —, New College, 148 —, St Frideswide's priory, 47n Oxfordshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 123 paganism, see magic and paganism Pakeman, William, 76-77 Palmer, Julins, 116 Parham (Suffolk), 62n parish guilds, 164 Parker, Richard, 47n —, William, 73 Parkyn.John, 192 — Robert, 191-97 Parry, Dr John, 137 Paston family and Paston Letters 155, 156 Paul III, Pope, 19, 66 Paul IV, Pope, 131 'Paulus Magus, Sultan of Babylon', 18, 79 Pavia, battle of (1525), 20,48 Pawling, William, 71 Pecock, Reginald, bishop of St Asaph and Chichester, 159 Peterborough, 136, 145

—, bishops of, see Chambers; Pole —, diocese of, 106, 114, 134, 167 Petre, William, 13 Pexsall, Ralph, 56n Philip II, King of Spain, 131, 132, 177, 178-79 Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, 157 Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, 154 Piers Plowman, see Langland piety, in pre-Reformadon church, 22-23, 125, 146, 163-64, 174 Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-37), 133, 166

Pilton (Northants.), 140 plays, see theatre Plowman's Tale, 154 Pluckley (Kent), 111 Pole, David, bishop of Peterborough, 135-36 —, Edmund de la, earl of Suffolk, 29 —, Reginald, Cardinal, 114, 131, 180 —, Richard de la, 48 Pomeroy family, 122 Poole (Dorset), 109, 113 ports, Protestantism (1520-58), 112-13, 116 Portsmouth, 109, 113 Praemunire, statutes of, 158 Praier and complaynte of the ploweman unto Christe, The, 154 'Prayer Book Rebellion' (1549), 122 preaching, see licences to preach; sermonising Prestwich (Lanes.) 121 Price, Sir John, 120 priests, see clergy printing, and diffusion of new ideas, 88-89,96,98, 153, 173 Protestantism, and anticlericalism, 154-55, 162, 164-65, 170-76 —, early expansion in England (1520-58), 101-32, 167 —, in London, see London —, in Northamptonshire, 114, 133-49 —, see also martyrs Provisors, statutes of, 158 Pullen, Simmon, 72 —, Thomas, 72 Punt, Thomas, 72 — William, 165 Punte, Henry, 73 Puritanism, Elizabethan, 102, 104, 121 Purvey, John, 141 Pyke, Robert, 72

Index

219

Quarles, Francis, 207-8

Rychemount, Denis, alias Metcalfe, 7n, 44, 52, 80 Rye (Sussex), 113 Ryppis,John, 76 Ryvers, see Rivers

Radcliffe (Lanes.), 121 Ramsey, John, 164 —.William, 109-10 Raunds (Northants.), 146 Reading (Berks.), 116 Rede, William, 63 Redlingfield (Suffolk), 75 Remching, John, 39 Renaissance, Luther's view of, 97 Renard, Simon, 108, 178, 179 Repon, Thomas, 141-42 Resby, Friar, 66n Reuchlin, Johann, Rudiments of Hebrew, 95 Reve, Henry, 77 —, Robert, 72 Reynolde, Robert, 63 Rhodes, fall of, 20, 40 Richmond (Surrey), 31 Rivers [Ryvers], Augustine, prior of Butley, 6,7, 15,27,36,44,50 — death of, 2, 11,55 —, and visitations, 8, 9, 35 —, Augustine (namesake of prior), 14 —, Thomas, 71 Roberts, John, 143 Robinson, Thomas, 193 Rochester (Kent), 113 Rogers, Owen, 154 Rokewood, Robert, 63 Rolle, Richard, 191 Rote [Roote], John, 134-35,138 Rothwell (Northants.), 139 Rough,John, 111 Rowse, Sir William, 62 Royston, John, 18, 39n, 79 —, Master William, 39 —, William (under-steward), 5, 71 Rumburgh (Suffolk), 54 Russell, Francis, 2nd earl of Bedford, 123-24 —, John, 1st earl of Bedford, 148 Russhe, Arthur, 62 —, family, 21 —, Sir Thomas, 16n, 20n, 53, 54 Rutland, Protestantism (1520-58), 106, 114, 134, 137, 138 —, see also Oakham

St Benet's Hulme, abbey (Norfolk), 49 St David's, bishops of, 156 St German, Christopher, 159, 160-61, 162 St Ives (Hunts.), 114 St Neots (Hunts.), 114 St Omer (France), 30n St Osyth (Essex), 22,31 Saintes (France), 187-88 saints, mentioned in wills, 125, 146 Salcot, John, alias Capon, 49n Salesbury, William, 120 Salisbury, 109, 116-17, 156 —, bishops of, see Ayscough —, diocese of, 116 Sail, John, 10 Sampson, Grace, 75 —, William, 72 Samuel, William, 164 Sandal Parva (Yorks.), 193 Sandwich (Kent), 113 Saunders, family, 147-48 —, Laurence, 119, 147-48 Scarisbrick, J.J., on Protestantism and English Reformation, 101-4,127, 133, 136, 152, 163-64 Scholey, Robert, 193 schoolboys, mock battles, 122-23, 177-90 schoolmasters, and Protestantism, 188-89 schools, see education Schwarmer, 93 Scory, John, bishop of Hereford, 120 Scotland, English campaigns against, 30-31,41-42 Scrorer, John, 35n Seager, Francis, 164-65 Sender, —, 46 sermonising, attitudes to, 172 Seton, Alexander, 115n Sheen (Surrey), 3In Sheldon, John, 139 Shelle, William, 73 Shelley (Suffolk), 57n, 62n Shepherd, Luke, 164 shoemakers, as Protestant martyrs, 135 Shotley (Suffolk), 63n

Pyor.s Plowman's exhortation, unto the lordes, knight es and burgoysses of the parlyamenthouse, 154

220


Shrewsbury, 119 —, earls, of, see Talbot Shropshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 117, 119 Sibbertoft (Northants.), 147 Sibton (Suffolk), 13 Sidney, Sir Henry, 148 Silles, Peter, 195n Skelton, John, 161-62 Skew (Skewse), John, 46 Smallbridge (Suffolk), 62n Smyth, John, 76,77 —.Robert, 73 —, Rudolph, 138 —.Thomas, 15n Snape (Suffolk), priory, 3, 15, 25, 46-47 Somerleyton (Suffolk), 62n Somerton, West, see West Somerton Soorar, John, 35 Soranzo, —, 108 South Molton (Devon), 109-10 Southampton, 109, 113 Southfield, Walter, bishop of Norwich, 18 Southwark, St George's Field, 55 —, St Mary Overy, 44 Southwelle, John, 63 Spain, relations with England under Mary, 131-32, 177, 178-79 Speryng, Thomas, 62 Spilsby (Lines.), 50n Springe, Thomas, 62n Stafford, Edward, 3rd duke of Buckingham, 20, 39 Staffordshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 117-18, 119 —, see also Lichfield Stamford (Lines.), 114 Standish, Henry, Bishop of St Asaph, 161 Stanford (Northants.), 147 Stanley, family, earls of Derby, 121 —, Mary, Lady Mounteagle, 23, 55 —, Thomas, 1st Lord Mounteagle, 55n —, Thomas, 2nd Lord Mounteagle, 55n StantonStJohn(Oxon.), 123 Staplehurst (Kent), 111 Staverton Part (Suffolk), 3n, 15, 23, 35, 50, 54, 57 Steeple Bumpstead (Essex), 111 Steward, Dr Edmund, 56, 81 Stillington, Dr William, 45 Stodard, John, 145 Stoke by Clare (Suffolk), 112

Stoke by Nayland (Suffolk), 112 Stoker, Richard, 71 Stokesley, John, bishop of London, 60 Stonehouse (Glos.), 115 Stonham (Suffolk), 62n Stookes, William, 73 Stow, John, Survey of London, 185 Stratford (Suffolk), 12, 7In Stroud (Glos.), 115 Studham, John, 72 Succession Act (1534), 62n Sudbourne (Sudbury), Thomas, alias Manning, see Manning Sudbury (Suffolk), 48, 106 Suffolk, lands of Butley priory, 1 In, 1214, 15-16, 34 —, list of persons to subscribe to Succession Act 62-63 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 103, 110, 111-12, 123 —, see also Ash Green; Bawdsey; Benhall; Boyton; Brantham Hall; Bromehill; Bungay; Bury St Edmunds; Butley; Campsey; Campsey Ashe; Capel; Chapmans; Chillesford; Debenham; Dodnash; Eye; Felixstowe; Finborough; Framlingham; Gedgrave; Glemham Magna; Hollesley; Hoxne; Ipswich; Leiston; Letheringham; Melton; Mettingham; Nettlestead; Orford; Redlingfield; Rumburgh; Shelley; Sibton; Snape; Staverton Park; Stratford; Sudbury; Tangham; Tunstall; Wantisden; Westhorp; Wickhambrook; Woodbridge. —, dukes, of, see Brandon —, earls of, see Pole de la Sulgrave (Northants.), 137, 138 Suliard, John, 62 superstition, see magic and paganism Surian,—, 108 Surrey, Protestantism (1520-58), 109, 124 Surrey, Earls of, see Howard Sussex, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 103, 108, 113, 123; wills as evidence for, 126, 127 —, see also Tortington Sutton, William, 71 Switzerland, humanism, 88 —, Protestantism, 124,171 Sympson, William, 73 Syresham (Northants.), 134, 135, 137

Index Talbot, Francis, 5th earl of Shrewsbury, 29 —, Robert, 148 Talmach, William, 56,57 Talmage, Lionel, 62 Tangham (Suffolk), 12 Tanner, Thomas, 1, 2-4 Taylor, Rowland, 111 Teixeira,Jose, 187-88 Tenterden (Kent), 111 Tetbury (Glos.), 115 Tewkesbury (Glos.), 115 textile industry, see cloth towns Tey, Sir Thomas, 62 Thacher, John, 78 Thayne, James, alias Nicholas, 136 theatre, used for propaganda purposes, 141, 143-44, 165 Therouanne (France), 30 Thetford,John,a/w.v Colyn, 8, 9, 17, 18, 35, 44, 77, 79 Thetford (Norfolk), 43, 54 —, priory 17, 35n, 44 Thorpe Malsor (Northants.), 148 Thurleby family, 140 Tilney, Sir Philip, 57, 62 tithes, quarrels over, 147, 167, 174-75 Tixall (Staffs.), 118 Tonbridge (Kent), 111 Tortington (Sussex), priory, 26 Tournai, 30 towns, Protestantism (1520-58), 111-24 Toynbee, Arnold, 201, 202, 207 trentals, 196-97 Tresham, Sir Thomas, 134-35 Trevias, John de, 160 True copye of a prolog wrytten in an ol.de English bible, The, 155 Tunstall (Suffolk), 16 Turner, William, 164 Tyndale, William, 119, 141, 149, 162, 164 Tyrrell, Sir Thomas, 62 Ulcombe (Kent), 111 Umfrey.John, 78 Underbill, Edward, 124 Underwood, John, bishop of Chalcedon, 9, 21, 25, 39, 49n, 57 universities, historical study at, 199-208 Upton (Northants.), 145n Valla, Lorenzo, 88, 90, 95, 157 Veysey, John, bishop of Exeter, 161

221

Vision of Piers Polwman, see Langland Vowell, Richard, 32n Vulgate, 91,95 Vynterer, Robert, 73 Waldegrave, Sir William, 62 Wales, Protestantism (1520-58), 103, 120 Walgrave (Northants.), 146 Walle, William, 138 Walsingham, Sir Francis, 109 Walsingham (Norfolk), priory, 7n, 9, 22,32 Waltham Abbey (Essex), 44 Wantisden (Suffolk), l l n , 12, 72n Ward, Antony, 143-44, 149 Wardley (Rutland), 138, 146 Warham, William, archbishop of Canterbury, 33 Warner, John, 19 Warter (Yorks.), priory, 10 Warwickshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 102, 107, 111, 117, 118-19, 126, 147 Watkinson, Robert, 139 Watkyn,—, 56 Watson, family, 193, 197 —, William, 191-97 Webb, Richard, 115 Weldon (Northants.), 142 Wentworth, Thomas, Lord, 57, 62, 63 West, Nicholas, bishop of Ely, 44 West Somerton (Norfolk), 3, 12, 14, 16, 49,69 Westerfield, Reginald, 7, 8-9, 71, 77, 80 Westhorp (Suffolk), 60n Westminster, Westminster abbey, 45, 57 —, York Place, 26 Westmorland, Protestantism (1520-58), 124 Westwood (Suffolk), 62n Wetherden (Suffolk), 62n Wheatley (Oxon.), 123 Wheteley, William, 73 Whethamstede, John, abbot of St Albans, 4 Whitchurch (Salop), 119 Whitryne, Sir Richard, 148 Wickhambrook (Suffolk), 56 Wigan (Lanes.), 121 Willoughby, family, 21 —, Sir Christopher, 62, 63 —, William, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, 50-51

222


wills, as evidence for Protestantism, 117, 121, 125-29, 146, 167 Wilson, Richard, 8 —, Stephen, 144-45, 149 Wiltshire, Protestantism (1520-58), 112, 116,123 —, see also Salisbury Winchelsea (Sussex), 113 Winchester, 124n —, bishops of, see Gardiner —, diocese of 124, 168 Windsor, 116 Wingfield, Sir Anthony, 50, 52n, 57, 62, 63 —, family, 21 —, Sir Humphrey, 57, 62 —, Sir Richard, 40n Winston (Suffolk), 112 Winterton (Norfolk), 3 Wisdom, Robert, 119 "wise" men and women, see "cunning" and "wise" men and women Wittenberg (Germany), 93, 149 Woburn Abbey (Beds.), 124 Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal, 21, 149, 161, 162 —, and Butley priory, 15, 20, 36-39, 56, 80-81 —, mentioned in register of Butley prior: church affairs, 5, 20, 33, 36-39, 42, 45, 46-47, 54, 56; fall and death, 58-59; foreign affairs, 39, 43, 51 Wooburn (Bucks.), 123 Woodbridge, Thomas, 11-12,71 —, William, alias Gymbold, subprior of Butley priory, 25, 55, 57n, 76, 77, 78 —, —, book belonging to, 18-19

—, —, and election of Prior Manning, 56, 80 —, —, and visitations, 8,11 —, —, and writing of register, 6, 7, 27 Woodbridge (Suffolk), 49 —, priory, 4, 17, 34, 35, 44, 58, 75 Woodcrofte, Kateryn, 73 Worcester, 119-20 Worcestershire, Protestantism (1520-58), 119 Wotton (Glos.), 115 Wryght, John, 76, 77 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, rebellion led by, 124, 148, 117, 178-79, 183 Wyck Rissington (Glos.), 75 Wycklyffe's Wycket, 155 Wycliffe,John, 151, 153, 154, 155, 158, 170 Wycombe (Bucks.), 123 Wymondham (Norfolk), priory, 11, 44 Wynkfield, Brian, 8-9, 80 Yarmouth (Norfolk), 112,113 Ynche, Agnes, 197 Yngham, Robert, 71 York, 101, 111, 121, 126, 128 —, diocese of, 106, 167 —, St Mary's abbey, 10 Yorkshire, anticlericalism, 169 —, parish clergy, Marian, 191-97 —, Protestantism (1520-58), 101, 102, 111, 112, 121; wills as evidence for, 126, 127, 128 —, see also Hull; Warter; York Zurich, 124 Zwingli, Huldreich, 88

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