The Customs of Old England Part 6

THE MINISTRY OF TRADE

The powers of the Chancellor were very considerable. They did not extend to questions of life or death, but he could fine, he could imprison, he could banish, and, being an ecclesiastic, he could excommunicate; and these methods of reproof and coercion were constantly employed by him as ex-officio justice of the peace and censor of public morals. The privilege of the University was of a dual nature. It protected the scholars in any court of first instance but a University court; on the other hand, the University obtained full control over its scholars, who were forbidden to enter a secular court. Litigants were allowed to appeal, and very frequently did appeal, from the Chancellor's decision to Congregation, and, if they were still not satisfied and the matter was sufficiently grave, to the Pope--that is, in spiritual causes. In temporal causes an appeal lay to the higher tribunals of the realm and the King. The Chancellor, also, might appeal to the King, invoking the secular arm in cases where the voice of the Church proved ineffectual in dealing with rebellious subjects, and the letter addressed to the sovereign for this purpose was called, in technical language, a _significavit_.

Sometimes the King, moved perhaps by a pet.i.tion from his lieges in one or other of the University towns, admonished the Chancellor to be more alert in the performance of his duty. In June, 1444, the head of the University of Oxford was in receipt of the following missive from Henry VI.:

"Trusty and welbeloved, we grete you wel, and late you wyte that we have understanden by credible report of the greet riotts and misgovernance that have at diverse tymys ensued and contynelly ensue by two circuits used in oure Universite of Oxon in the vigile of St. John Baptist and the Holy Apposteles Peter and Paule to the gret hurt and disturbance of the sad and wol vituled personnes of the same Universite, wherefore We, wolling such vices and misgovernaunce to be suppressyd and refused in the said Universite and desiring the ease and tranquillite of the said peuple in the same, wol and charge you straitly that ye see and ordeyne by youre discretione that al such vices and misgovernaunce be left and all such as may be founde defective in that behalve be sharply punished in example of all other; and more over We charge you oure Chancellor, to whom the governance and keeping of our paix within oure said Universite by virtu of our privilege roial is committed that in eschewing of all inconvenience, ye see and ordeyne that oure paix be surely kepe within oure Universite above said, as wel in the saide vigiles as at all other tymes; and for asmuch as We be enformed that the sermons in latin which ever before this tyme, save now of late, be now gretly discontynued, to the gret hurt and disworship of the same, We therefore, desiring right affecturusely the increse of vertu and cunning in oure said Universite, wol and commande you straitly that ye with ripe and suffisant maturite, advise a sure remede in that party, by the which such sermons may thereafter be continued and inviolably observed, wherein ye shal do unto Us right singulier pleisir.--Geven under oure signet at Farneham the 20 day of Juyn."

The reader will no doubt be interested to learn the occasion of this reprimand. The concluding portion invests it with a somewhat general character, and may be interpreted as pointing to a lamentable decline from a previous high standard of piety and learning, which only incessant preaching was calculated to rectify. Neglecting this postscript, it is pretty evident that the scandal arising from the observance of vigils was produced by the inconsiderate carousals of craftsmen included in the Privilege, and was therefore obnoxious to the magisterial notice of the Chancellor. It will be sufficient to refer to the riots on the Eve of St. John Baptist.

As was the custom in mediaeval towns, different trades had different stations a.s.signed to them, and the tailors, who must have driven a flourishing business in caps and gowns, had their shops in the north-west ward of St. Michael's Parish. In ancient days these satellites indulged at certain seasons--more particularly on the Eve of St. John Baptist--in unseemly demonstrations. They waxed very jovial, and, after eating, drinking, and carousing, "took a circuit" through the streets of the city, accompanied by sundry musicians, and "using certain sonnets" in praise of their profession and patron. As long as they kept within these limits there seems to have been no complaint, but the thing increased more and more. People were disturbed and alarmed, the watch beaten, and from blows the outrageous tailors pa.s.sed to murder. And so it came about that their revelling, with the "circuit" of another profession on the Eve of St. Peter and St. Paul, was prohibited first by Edward III. and then by Henry VI. in the letter above cited.

Another trade closely a.s.sociated with the University was that of the barbers. In the twenty-second year of Edward III. (1348) the whole company and fellowship of the barbers within the precincts of Oxford appeared before the Chancellor and announced their intention of "joining and binding themselves together in amity and love." They brought with them certain ordinances and statutes drawn up in writing for the weal of the craft of barbers, and requested the Chancellor to peruse and correct them, and, afterwards, if he approved, attach to them the seal of the University. The regulations having been seriously considered by the Chancellor, the two proctors and certain doctors, it was resolved to comply with the pet.i.tion on the day following and const.i.tute the barbers a society or corporation.

The first article stipulated that the said craft should, under certain penalties, keep and maintain a light before the image of our Lady in our Lady's Chapel, within the precincts of St. Frideswyde's Church; the second, that no person of the said craft should work on a Sunday, save on market Sundays and in harvest-time, or shave any but such as were to preach or do a religious act on Sunday all through the year; while a third provided that all such as were of the craft were to receive at least sixpence a quarter from each customer who desired to be shaved weekly in his chamber or house. One shave per week does not coincide with our modern notions of what is attractive and presentable in the outer man, but the same rule prevailed at Cambridge. The statutes of St.

John's College in the latter university affirmed: "A barber is very necessary to the college, who shall shave and cut once a week the head and beard of the Master, Fellows, and Scholars, as they shall severally have need."

In the statutes of New College, Oxford, there is an injunction against the mock ceremony of shaving on the night preceding magistration. It is called a _ludus_ (or play), and is believed to have been affined to the ecclesiastical mummeries so popular in the Middle Ages, in one of which the characters were a bishop, an abbot, a preceptor, and a fool shaved the precentor on a public stage erected at the west end of the church.

There was also a species of masquerade celebrated by the religious in France, which consisted in the display of the most formidable beards; and it is recorded by Gregory of Tours that the Abbess of Poitou was accused of allowing one of these shows, called a _Barbitoria_, to be held in her monastery.

The only men of religion permitted to wear long beards were the Templars; and, speaking generally,[4] the presence or absence of hair was one of the marks of cleavage between the clergy (_tonsi_) and the laity (_criniti_). Even those privileged to wear long hair--we refer, of course, to the male portion of the community--were required to be shorn so far that part of their ears might appear, and that their eyes might not be covered. At first it may seem strange that the question of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the hair should come under the cognizance of the Church--the person himself or his barber might have been deemed at liberty to consult his own taste. The canon, however, which regulated the usage was based on the apostolic challenge: "Doth not nature itself teach you that, if a man hath long hair, it is a shame unto him?"

This ordinance applied a fortiori to priests, who had to be content with very little hair. At a visitation of Oriel College by Longland, Bishop of London, in 1531, he ordered one of the Fellows, who was a priest, to abstain, under pain of expulsion, from wearing a beard and pinked shoes, like a laic. It would seem that this spiritual person had been accustomed to ridicule the Governor and Fellows of the college, since he was commanded to abjure that bad habit also.

The correct explanation of the custom condemned by the New College statutes is doubtless that already furnished. Hearne, however, had an idea that it was a reflexion on the Lollards. Wiclif is always represented with a beard, and, as most of his followers were lay-folk, it was possibly a symbol of the sect, which may have recollected the text: "Neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard."

The interest of the University in expert tonsure is now well understood, but the craving for the subjugation of falsifying hair must have been quite secondary to that for the sustenance of the bodily powers, and accordingly the cooks stood very near to the purveyors of intellectual aliment. Nor did the Chancellor concern himself merely with the ratification of their ordinances; as the natural sequence, he, or his deputy, saw to it that they were properly respected, and formed a court of appeal for the settlement of internecine differences. Thus, on August 19, 1463, two persons, proctors of the craft of cooks of the University of Oxford, pet.i.tioned the Commissary against one of the members who had declined to contribute to the finding of candles, vulgarly called "c.o.ke-Lyght," in the church of St. Mary-the-Virgin, and to a certain accustomed feast on the day of the Cooks' Riding in the month of May. A day was appointed for investigating the matter, when the defendant did not appear, but several witnesses were produced to confirm the plaintiffs' a.s.sertions. Robert, the cook of Hampton Hall, deposed that all the cooks of Colleges and Halls had been used to contribute to the annual feast; that he had been a cook for six years, and that the cooks had always nominated two of their number to gather contributions. His testimony was corroborated by Stephen, the cook of Vine Hall, as also by Walter, another cook, and John, the cook of "Brasenos." It is worthy of note that in the record of these proceedings the names are entered as "Stepha.n.u.s c.o.ke," "Walterus c.o.ke," and "Johannes c.o.ke," thus throwing light on the formation of one of our commonest surnames.

Not only were questions of public policy and "const.i.tutional usage"

determined by the Chancellor's court, but delinquents of all descriptions were brought up for judgment. Here we shall do well to remember that this was an ecclesiastical court, and therefore offences against good morals as well as the law of the land were dealt with. A person unjustly defamed as guilty of incontinence could clear himself by a voluntary process of compurgation--that is, by the sworn testimony of reputable friends. If, unhappily, he was guilty, he might rehabilitate himself by formally abjuring his indiscretions. Both scholars and others of the Privilege frequently appeared before the Chancellor in the character of penitents. In 1443 a certain Christina, laundress of St.

Martin's parish, swore that she would no longer exercise her trade for any scholar or scholars of the University, because under colour of it many evils had been perpetrated, wherefore she was imprisoned and freely abjured the aforesaid evils in the presence of Master Thomas Gascoigne, S.T.P., the Chancellor. In 1444 Dominus Hugo Sadler, priest, swore on the Holy Gospels that he would not disturb the peace of the University, and would abstain from pandering and fornication, on pain of paying five marks on conviction. In this case four acted as sureties, singly and jointly. In 1452 Robert Smyth, _alias_ Harpmaker, suspected of adultery with Joan Fitz-John, tapestry-maker, dwelling in the corner house on the east side of Cat-strete, abjured the society of the same Joan, and swore that he would not come into any place where she was, whether in the public street, market, church, or chapel, on pain of paying forty shillings to the University. On August 22, 1450, Thomas Blake, _peliparius_, William Whyte, barber, John Karyn, _chirothecarius_, "husbundemen" (householders), presented themselves before the Chancellor, and, touching the Holy Gospels, abjured the game of tennis within Oxford and its precinct.

At this point it will be convenient to refer to a custom not by any means confined to the Universities, about which there appears to be some degree of misconception. "Love-days," as they are called, have been strangely confused with _law_-days, whereas the very essence of the inst.i.tution was the avoidance of litigation with all its expense and ill-feeling. The practice of submitting disputes to friendly arbitration was seemingly founded on the text: "Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unbelievers and not before the saints?" In these circ.u.mstances it is not surprising that the clergy bore a great part in such proceedings; and thus we find Chaucer avouching of his Frere:

In love-dayes ther coude he mochel helpe, For ther he was nat lyk a cloisterer, With a thredbare cope, as is a poore scoler, But he was lyk a maister or a pope.

The University, being a microcosm of the entire kingdom, an _imperium in imperio_, by virtue of the "privilege roiall," cases occur in which deplorable misunderstandings were referred to the decision of one or more graduates of position--either in the first instance, or, it might be, ultimately, to the Chancellor or Commissary--by persons subject to academic tutelage. When the affair had been adjudicated, forms of reconciliation were prescribed, the parties being required to shake hands, go on their knees to one another, give each other the "kiss of peace," and provide a feast at their mutual expense, the menu of which was sometimes determined by the arbiter.

This interesting and admirable feature of old English life receives such copious ill.u.s.tration from the annals of Oxford that it seems worth while to specify examples. Thus, on November 8, 1445, a dispute between John G.o.dsond, stationer, and John Coneley, "lymner," having been referred to two Masters of Arts and they having failed to compose it within the time stipulated, the Chancellor intervened and decided that John Coneley should work for John G.o.dsond for one year only; that his wages should be four marks, ten shillings; that he should himself fetch his work and return it to his employer's abode; that he should be thrifty in the use of his colours; and that his employer should have free ingress to the place where he sat at work. On July 7, 1446, four arbitrators, having in hand a quarrel between Broadgates and Pauline Halls, imposed the following conditions: That the Princ.i.p.als should implore reconciliation from each other for themselves and their parties; that they should give, either to other, the kiss of peace, and swear upon the Holy Gospels to have brotherly love toward each other for the future, and bind themselves to its observance under a bond to pay one hundred shillings for the violation thereof. The bond was to be in the keeping of the Chancellor, and he was to deliver it, should hostilities be renewed, into the hands of the aggrieved party. David Philip, alleged to have struck John Coneley, was commanded to kneel to him, and ask and receive his pardon. It is worthy of remark that the invariable phrase applied to past quarrels is "ab origine mundi," which left no loophole for the revival of ancestral feuds, however remote in point of time.

On July 21, 1452, Master Robert Mason, having delivered judgment in the case of Thomas Condale, a servant of New College, and John Morys, tailor, required both parties, as a pledge of goodwill, to invite their neighbours to an entertainment, and provide at their joint charges two gallons of good ale.

On January 10, 1465, Thomas Chaundler, S.T.P., Commissary-General of the University of Oxford, having been chosen as arbitrator between the worshipful Sir Thomas Lancester, Canon-regular and prior of the same order of students, and Simon Marshall, on the one part, and John Merton, pedagogue, and his wife, on the other, decreed that none of them should abuse, threaten, or make faces at each other, and that they should forgive all past offences. None of them was to inst.i.tute further proceedings, judicial or extra-judicial, and within fifteen days of the date thereof they were to furnish an entertainment at their joint charges--one party to furnish a goose with a measure of wine, and the other bread and beer.

Finally, on February 6, 1465, Dr. John Caldbeke, arbiter between certain members of "White Hall" and "Deep Hall," ordered the parties to pardon each other and commence no ulterior proceedings. He imposed perpetual silence on them, and as to a certain desk, the _causa teterrima belli_, reserved the decision to the Chancellor. The disputants, accompanied by four members of each hall, were to meet at a time and place to be named, wine was to be provided for their mutual entertainment, and, before parting, they were to shake hands.

The question has been deferred too long--Against whom did the University maintain its privilege? In part, no doubt, against the King's officers, but, mainly, against the Mayor and Burgesses of Oxford, between whom and the scholars there was a simmering hostility bursting into periodical melees answering to, but infinitely more sanguinary than, the "town and gown rows" of more recent days. The general result of these disturbances, a.s.sumed to be acts of aggression on the part of the citizens, but more probably provoked by the insolence of the undergraduate portion of the University, of which there is abundant evidence, was to fortify the authority of the Chancellor and extend his powers. We have seen that the townsmen, at an early period, were mulcted in an annual tribute, of which they were afterwards relieved, for hanging certain clerks. This might have served as a sufficient warning of the inviolability of the erudite persons in their midst, but it failed of effect. Altogether there were three capital riots in the later Middle Ages, which we shall proceed to notice, together with the consequences.

Of these three great conflicts between townsmen and scholars the first occurred in 1214. This was ended by a compromise brought about by the Bishop of Tusculum, the Papal Legate, the King granting jurisdiction to the University in all cases where one of the parties was a scholar or a scholar's servant. The second tumult, which took place in 1290, induced the King to confer upon the University the custody of the peace, the custody of the a.s.size of victuals, and the supervision of weights and measures jointly with the Mayor, who had hitherto borne full sway in matters of police. The third battle was in 1357. This was the famous riot of St. Scholastica's day--_satis periculosa_--which resulted in the excommunication of the Mayor, while he and the commonalty of the town of Oxford were laid under an interdict by John, Bishop of Lincoln.

The Mayor, who was a vintner and drawn into the quarrel through it having arisen in his tavern, is stated in one account to have been originally in the service of the University--protected by the Privilege--and this, of course, was regarded as an aggravation of his offence. The end of it was that the rights before mentioned were confirmed with certain extensions--namely, the supervision of the pavement, and the custody of the peace as well between laics as scholars, while the Mayor was excluded from the custody of the peace between scholars.

As a species of penance the Mayor and his fellows were enjoined by the Bishop of Lincoln to attend an anniversary ma.s.s at St. Mary's on St.

Scholastica's Day; and the scholars were forbidden, on pain of a long term of imprisonment, to inflict on any layman of the town, whilst on his way to the church, during the celebration of the ma.s.s, or in the course of his return, any injury or violence, lest he should be deterred from the observance of the duty. This caution was proclaimed through the schools year by year on the "legible day" immediately preceding the festival. Good relations were hard to restore, and as long after as 1432 the authorities were reduced to publishing the following edict in the hope of abating the scandal:

"Whereas there are no more suitable means of allaying the lamentable dissensions between the University and the Town, which are a sign of the wrath of the Almighty, than the devout supplications of priests walking in procession, therefore this ordinance is made for the regulation of such processions. First shall walk the Chancellor, after him the Doctors by two and two, in the rank of their several faculties, then Masters of Arts, then Bachelors in Theology, then Non-Regents, then beneficed Bachelors, then all other Bachelors, then secular priests non-graduates, then scholars, all by two and two, and all silently praying for the King and other benefactors living and dead, and for the peace and prosperity of the University. Priests non-graduates shall be bound to attend on pain of a fine of sixpence, but no licentiates of any faculty soever may in any wise be present at the act."

It would not be fair to conclude this account without giving the townsmen's version of the way in which the Privilege was exercised. This can be conveniently presented in the terms of two pet.i.tions, one of which certainly, and the other probably, dates from the second year of Edward III. (1328). If there be any truth in the allegations, it must be owned that the Chancellor abused his judicial position to a degree quite intolerable to the victims.

I

"To the King and Council; the Burgesses of Oxford complain, whereas the Chancellor and University of Oxford have cognizance of contracts, covenants, and trespa.s.s between clerk and clerk, or clerk and lay, they encroach on the franchise of the town, and draw to them these contracts, etc., between laymen, especially in certain gifts and actions brought before the Chancellor, wherein a clerk has some concern, who, by covine, are made to incur large sums which were not due, and thus the defendants are condemned and afterwards excommunicated in all the churches of the town, unless they agree thereto; and if they are not absolved of the sentence before the Chancellor, they are despoiled even to their breeches, and must give all their goods to the clerk. In the same way a plea of trespa.s.s in which there has been a cession to a clerk is made to terminate in a plea of debt, and thus charges of rent upon free tenements are proved, against law and in great burden to the tenements of the town. Thus the Chancellor encroaches on the franchises of the town, to the damage of the King's profits on writs and issues on pleas of debts, &c., pleadable before the Justices, or before the Mayor and bailiffs of the town. And with such proceedings taken before the Chancellor concerning merchants and other strangers pa.s.sing through, as well as residents, the merchants will not repair thither on account of such evil doings, and the town is thereby greatly impoverished."

II

"To the King and Council: Walter de Harewell, burgess and inheritor in Oxford, showing that whereas the Chancellor of the University has cognizance of offences and contracts between clerk and clerk, and clerk and lay, in the town, but nowhere else, one William de Wyneye, clerk, impleaded him before the Chancellor for offences done out of his jurisdiction in a foreign county; the said Walter justified himself before the Chancellor, but the said Chancellor, notwithstanding, condemned him to prison and kept him in prison in Oxford till he contented the said William with a large sum of money, and made an obligation of 20 to be at the will of the said University, and still he had to find mainprise before he could be set free. And because when he was taken and led to prison by the bedels of the University, he entered his house and shut his coffers and chests and the door of his room for the safety of his goods and chattels, the said Chancellor banished him out of the town, and had it proclaimed everywhere, as though he were an outlaw, and sequestered all his goods and chattels, threatening if he entered the town to imprison him again for six days. No one ever had such franchise or power thus to outlaw, destroy, and banish the King's burgesses in the said town. Prays a remedy for charity."[5]

Owing perhaps to their peculiar position as the King's chattels, neither the chartered rights of the citizens nor the Privilege of the University could be directly a.s.serted against the Jews, of whom a considerable body appears to have been settled at Oxford, but the unbelievers were not allowed to do as they pleased. A critical instance occurred at Ascensiontide, 1268, in connexion with a solemn procession to St.

Frideswyde's, when certain horrible Jews, _demoniaco spiritu arrepti_, seized a cross from the bearer, broke it, and trampled it under foot.

Complaint was made to the King, who happened to be at Woodstock, and he issued an order for the making of two crosses at the expense of the Jews, one of which was to be of silver gilt and portable, and the other of marble and stationary. These were to be preserved for the perpetual remembrance of the outrage; and the silver cross was presented to the Chancellor, masters, and scholars, to be borne before them in their solemn procession. An ordinance states that "since the relics of the Blessed Frideswyde repose in the borough of Oxford, and more especially ought to be deservedly honoured as well by the University as by others, particularly by all who dwell in the aforesaid town, that the said University may obtain, through the intervenient merits and prayers of the same, more abundant tranquillity and peace for the future, a solemn procession be made in the middle, to wit, Lent term, to the church of the same virgin, for the peace and tranquillity of the University, and that solemn ma.s.s be held there in respect of the above-said virgin."

ACADEMIC

CHAPTER IX

THE "STUDIUM GENERALE"

We have expounded with some particularity the conditions of University life; we have now to deal with University life in its more intimate relations. And first we must say something of the t.i.tle, the Latinity of which is not above suspicion, though its convenience and expressiveness are beyond question. The term _studium generale_ was applied, in mediaeval times, to an academy in which instruction was imparted on all subjects, and which was thus differentiated from grammar schools and schools of divinity, in the former of which the curriculum was restricted to Latin, and in the latter to theology. The phrase connoted also a place of common resort, as distinct from mere local foundations, the advantages of which were confined to the immediate neighbourhood.

According to Mr. Froude, no fewer than thirty thousand students "gathered out of Europe to Paris to listen to Abelard"; and the traditions of Oxford and Cambridge were equally hospitable.

THE "NATIONS"

Before discussing the system of degrees, it is desirable to speak of the "men"--the candidates for graduation; and, in this connexion, stress must be laid on the cosmopolitan character of our older universities, which welcomed with open arms students of various races and of all ranks of society. The Oxford statutes contain a provision for the proclamations being made in Latin, that language being, as it is stated, intelligible to the different nations represented by the scholars. In addition to the native youth, Welshmen, Irishmen, and Scots were accustomed to repair to the banks of the Isis and the Cam, and the two former of these cla.s.ses--at any rate at their first coming--might have been totally ignorant of English.

The reader will hardly fail to have been struck with the occurrence of Welsh names in the foregoing pages; and the records of judicial proceedings mention the case of a Cambrian scholar, who stole a horse from the stable of an Oxford inn and decamped with it, in the company of several compatriots, to the Welsh mountains, in consequence of which the unhappy innkeeper had to defend a suit brought against him by the horse's owner! Notices of the Irish and the Scots are no less characteristic of their imputed traits. Of the presence of the former there is interesting testimony in pet.i.tions to the Crown on the part of scandalized townsmen, in one of which they set forth that "there have been murders, felonies, robberies, and riots, &c., lately committed in the counties of Oxford, Berks, Wilts, and Bucks, by persons coming to the town under the jurisdiction of the University, some of whom are the King's lieges born in Ireland and the others his enemies called 'Wylde Irisshmen'; and that these misdeeds continue daily to the scandal of the University and the ruin of the country round about; the malefactors threaten the King's officers and the bailiffs of the town, so that these last, for fear of death, dare not do their duty and collect the fee-farm, &c. Pray therefore that all Irish be turned out of the realm between Christmas and Candlemas next, except graduates in the schools, beneficed clergy in England, those who have English father or mother, or English husband or wife, and many other exceptions, persons of good repute. And that graduates and beneficed men find surety for their good behaviour."

The Scots were cordially hated. Tryvytlam's poem "De Laude Oxoniae" has the following stanzas, which, in the opinion of some, may be still apposite to the circ.u.mstances of University and national life:

Iam loco tercio procedit acrius Armata bestia duobus cornibus.

Hanc Owtrede reputo, qui totis viribus Verbis et opere insultat fratribus.

Hic Scottus genere perturbat Anglicos, Auferre nit.i.tur viros intraneos.

Sic, sic, Oxonia, sic contra filios Armas et promoves hostes et exteros.