"suis orationibus adjuvent. Quamobrem hortamur Re"verendam Paternitatem vestram, quam utique optamus "in hoc sæculo diu feliciterque valere, ut hanc ipsam " consuetudinem nostram suos, quos fidelissimos habeat, intelligere faciat; ut ipsi, cum placuerit Deo vos ex "hac mortali vita transferre, obitum vestrum Cantuariensi Ecclesiæ significare possint, etc."

During the 14th century but one or two instances of the granting of this privilege occur, but in the reign of Henry V. a fashion seems to have arisen, by which either the monks were prompted to elect their friends and benefactors into their brotherhood, or else the benefactors were led to seek such election. As the 15th century got older the admissions became more and more frequent, and when the registers approach the beginning of the next century, there is scarcely a page which does not contain one or more examples of the formula.

Several letters towards the end of this volume allude TheJubiles of St. to an "annus jubilæus or "Jubilee of St. Thomas," a Thomas. festival which was celebrated in the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury, once in fifty years, in memory of the murdered Archbishop, who, in consequence of his violent death and consequent canonization, came, during the middle ages, to be considered the chief patron of the Cathedral. The great tragedy which ended his life, and permanently modified the relations of Church and State up to the time of the Reformation, took place on the 29th December 1170, which day was thenceforward set down in the kalendar as "Festum Sancti Thomæ Martyris." It was observed in each recurring year with appropriate ceremonies, and attracted to the martyr's tomb or shrine a large number of worshipping pilgrims.

When in 1220, just fifty years after the Archbishop's death, his relics were transferred from the tomb in the earth, into which they had been hastily thrust on the

day following his martyrdom, to a magnificent new shrine, recently erected in the choir of the church, a new festival, that of the "Translatio Sancti Thomæ " was instituted. This festival was celebrated on 7th July, and, as mediæval roads were passable by pilgrims in the summer whilst they were almost closed to passengers in the winter, it soon happened that the Feast of the Translation almost superseded that of the Passion.

The fact of an interval of exactly fifty years intervening between the martyrdom and the translation, suggested to the Cardinal Archbishop Langton, who conducted the ceremonies of the translation, a parallel between the fiftieth celebration of the martyr's festival, and the fiftieth, jubilee, year of the Jews; and he therefore asked and obtained, from Pope Honorius III., a Bull of indulgence, by which special pardons and privileges were granted to all true penitents who, after confession and a profession of contrition for their past sins, should visit and make their offerings at the shrine, during a period limited by the terms of the Bull.

These privileges, whether by intention or inadvertence, were only granted for the single celebration which was impending at the time at which they were conceded, and, on future recurrences of the jubilee year, it was argued by the successively reigning Popes, that new petitions must be sent to Rome, and a new Bull obtained on each occasion, before the indulgences could be considered effective. This limitation led to considerable correspondence in after years, and it is from this correspondence, as far as it has been preserved, that our knowledge of the characteristics of the indulgences depends.

The petition for the year 1470 recites that Cardinal Langton wrote a "tractatum sive libellum " on the subject, and, from the specimen quoted in the petition

it may be gathered, that the writer considered that it was almost in consequence of supernatural intervention that the translation of the relics was deferred, in spite of previous attempts to effect it, until a period of exactly fifty years was interposed between it and the martyrdom, and he supports his opinion by reasons extracted from the Old Testament, expressed with much enthusiasm, but wanting in clearness.

49.

No information remains concerning any celebration of the festivals from 1220 to 1370; and from the silence of the records it may be inferred that the pardons were granted as matters of course. As on these occasions there was no controversy, so no documents are to be found relating to the subject. Wharton, in the Anglia Sacra, A. S., I. quotes a narrative, which tells how Simon Sudbury, then Bishop of London, incurred unpopularity by discouraging pilgrims who were on their way to the celebration of 1370; warning them not to trust to the efficacy of the promised indulgences; but no mention of the festival is to be found in the registers of the Monastery.

The Jubilee of 1420, according to an entry in a contemporary record belonging to the City of Canterbury, was a most successful celebration, and attracted a hundred thousand pilgrims to the shrine, all of whom were, by the foresight of the municipal authorities, lodged and fed without any increase in the ordinary price of provisions. In this year the oblations at the shrine amounted to more than six hundred pounds, say, in modern currency, at least eight thousand pounds.

In preparation for the festival of 1470, Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, solicited the Pope in 1454, and two of the most eminent of the Canterbury monks were dispatched to Rome, carrying a petition to Pope Paul II., who, apparently, conceded the usual privileges without difficulty; and this was the last occasion upon which the Jubilee was celebrated.

The fortifications of

The letters dated in 1520, written by Dr. Grig, the Advocate in the Curia of the Archbishop and of the Monastery, show that the extravagant demands made in that year by Pope Leo X. of participation in the profits of the impending festival caused its extinction, since the Archbishop and the Chapter declined to appropriate one half of the gross receipts to the building of St. Peter's, although they were willing, or rather although they offered, to surrender the same proportion of the net profits after their necessary expenses had been deducted. As the registers contain no reference to any actual celebration of this festival, it may be concluded that neither Rome or Canterbury made the required concessions, and that therefore no celebration took place. At the next recurring period of fifty years, in 1570, Jubilees, the the Monastery of Christ Church, and the cultus of St. Thomas in the Cathedral, had all become matters of ancient history.

The Editor here desires to acknowledge his obligation to the authorities of the Record Office, who have, in consideration of the great interest attaching to these letters of Dr. Grig and a few other documents, allowed him to disregard the rule which directs that nothing shall be printed in the volumes of this series which bears a date more modern than the last year of Henry . VII. He offers as his excuse for this trespass that in the case of the Canterbury Monastery the old order of things survived for a few years the birth of the new learning, and the invention of printing, with the consequent multiplication of books; the dissolution, which occurred in 1540, being for monks and monastic historians the real watershed dividing the old from the new. This consideration has obtained for him an indulgence which, he is given to understand, must not be looked upon as a repeal of the rule.

Those who are acquainted with the topography of the City of Canterbury do not need to be informed, that the

cathedral church with its precinct, which exactly occu- Canterpies the site of the ancient monastery of Christ Church, bury. is cramped within the north-eastern angle of the fortifications of the city, that, in fact, the outer wall of the precinct and the inner face of the city walls run approximately parallel to each other, leaving between them a narrow lane only a few yards in width.

From a military point of view this arrangement was obviously a matter of necessity; seeing that thus a continuous covered way, protected by the walls, was provided, by which the defenders of the city could be readily marched to the defence of all the faces of the fortifications. But the citizens and the monks were often at variance, and the latter felt themselves insulated within their narrow boundaries, and annoyed by a public thoroughfare, which followed the outline of a great part of their premises. Again, the outer boundary of this thoroughfare, at only thirty feet distance, was formed by the lofty towers and curtains of the city walls, which cut off the view of the country, and entirely destroyed the privacy of the precinct, which the towers overlooked. Under these circumstances, it is not a matter of surprise if the inhabitants of the monastery endeavoured to put an end to these inconveniences, by acquiring for themselves the covered way in question and the fortified wall which enclosed it.

The first step towards the acquisition of this precious piece of land was taken, about the year 1160, by Prior Wibert, who purchased, from one Alan of Ratling, a p. 379. small bit of ground, "jacentis retro pistrinum nostrum, "6 inter murum, scilicet, civitatis et murum Curiæ "nostræ." This little plot did not, of course, form part of the military way-that belonged to the Crown-but it bounded it, on the hither or convent side; nevertheless, by its purchase the convent got rid of a too near neighbour, and completed, at all points, their contract between their precinct and the thoroughfare, from which