Life" is continued in this manner till Old Age and Death have laid the Pilgrim gently on his couch, there to await Death's coming. Mercy takes him to her infirmary, which has Fear of God for porter, and where there are two messengers-Prayer and Almsgiving-whom he may send before him to the Heavenly Jerusalem. At last Death mounts upon his bed. Gracedieu reassures him. Death runs him through the body with her scythe.

He started and awoke, dead or alive he knew not till he heard a cock crow and the ringing of the convent bell, and saw that he was awake in the morning in his own bed in the monastery of Chalis.

The popularity of Guilevile's "Romaunt of the Three Pilgrimages" in England during the fifteenth century indicates the growth of the tendency to spiritual allegory, which had its source far back in

regular canons of St. Augustine-made a collection of "Sermons for the Greater Festivals of the Church," and in the middle of the fifteenth century put into English verse a Latin book of "Instructions for Parish Priests." 2 It began by admonishing priests to know their duties and live as they preach. It then explained in detail how a parishioner was to be dealt with from the cradle to the grave. Beginning at earliest, with birth and baptism, by taking the religious duties of the mother when the child is yet unborn, and the baptism of a child that is half-born to a dying mother, it proceeded to general rules that concern christening, confirmation, marriage, teaching of children, confession, how the people were to be taught as to the Communion, and trained to the right manner of receiving it: also how they were to be made to behave in church :

the writings of Greek fathers of the Church and the spiritualizing of the love-conceits of troubadours by lettered monks, who shared the accomplishments of their time, but were restrained by their vows from rhyming of love, like the noblemen and gentlemen who were their neighbours. From English translations of Guilevile we pass, by natural transition, through an English poem of the same character, to Spenser's "Faerie Queene," and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress."

John Mirk, who was a canon of Lilleshall, in Shropshire-a house associated with the order of the

1 Much interesting detail on the subject of Guilevile's allegory and its English versions will be found in these two volumes :-"The Ancient Poem of Guillaume de Guileville, entitled 'Le Pélerinage de l'Homme,' compared with the Pilgrim's Progress of John Bunyan, edited from notes collected by the late Mr. Nathaniel Hill, of the Royal Society of Literature, with illustrations and an Appendix." Pickering, 1858.-"The Booke of the Pylgremage of the Sowle, Translated from the French of Guillaume de Guileville, and Printed by William Caxton An. 1483, with Illuminations taken from the MS. Copy in the British Museum; edited by Katherine Isabella Cust." Pickering, 1859.

OF BEHAVIOUR IN CHURCH. Yet thou mosté teach them mare That when they doth to churché fare, Then bid them leave their many wordes Their idle speech and nicé bordes,3

And put away all vanitye

And say their Pater noster and their Ave.

Ne none in churché stondé shall,
Ne lean to pillar ne to wall,

But faire on knees they shall them set,
Kneeling down upon the flet,*
And pray to God with herté meke
To give them grace and mercy eke.
Suffer them to make no bere 5
But aye to be in their prayere,
And when the Gospel read be shall
Teach them then to stand up all,

And bless them fairé as they con
When Gloria tibi is begon;
And when the Gospel is i-done,
Teach them eft to kneel down sone;
And when they hear the bellé ring
To that holy sakering,1

Teach them kneel both young and old
And both their handés up to hold,
And say thenné in this manere,
Fair and softly, without bere,

"Jesu, Lord, welcome thou be

In form of bread as I thee see;

Jesu! for thy holy name,

Shield me to-day fro sin and shame,

Shrift and housel, Lord, thou grant me bo, Ere that I shall hennes go

And vray contrition of my sin

That I, Lord, ne'er die therein;

And, as thou were of a maid i-bore,

Suffer me ne'er to be forlore,

But when that I shall hennes wend

Grant me the bliss withouten end. Amen."

Whenever and wherever the sacred host was seen the people were to kneel; and a list was given of the evils from which any one was protected for the day on which he should have seen it.

"Also within church and seyntwary

Do right thus as I thee say;
Song and cry and suché fare
For to stint thou shalt not spare;
Casting of axtree and eke of stone 2
Suffer them there to usé none;
Ball and bars,3 and suché play,
Out of churchyard put away;
Court-holding and such manner chost
Out of seyntwary put thou most;
For Christ himself teacheth us
That Holy Church is His house,
That is made for nothing elles

Than for to pray in, as the book tells;
There the people shall gather within
To prayen and to weepen for their sin."

Witchcraft was to be forbidden the people; also usury. Husbands and wives were to be taught that both must consent before either could undertake a penance, or a vow of chastity, or a pilgrimage

"Save the vow to Jerusalem,

That is lawful to either of them."

Twice or thrice in the year occasion must be taken to teach the whole parish the Pater noster, Ave, and

1 Sakering, consecration of the host.

2 Throwing the hatchet and putting the stone. Aatree may be axletree, which is said to have been used for throwing by the rustics.

3 Bars. Casting the bar was another of the athletic sports of the people; and Henry VIII., after he came to the throne, is said by Hall and Holinshed to have retained "casting the bar" among his amusements. In a paper of the Spectator, written by Eustace Budgell (No. 161), a country fair of the year 1711 is described; and the describer says: "Upon my asking a farmer's son, of my own parish, what he was gazing at with so much attention, he told me that he was seeing Betty Welch, whom I knew to be his sweetheart, pitch a bar."

4 Chost, chest, "ceast," strife.

Creed. English rhymed forms of these were given, and then followed instruction as to the teaching and explaining of the Articles of Faith, and the Seven Sacraments of the Church :-1. Baptism; 2. Confirmation; 3. The Eucharist; 4. Penance; 5. Priest's orders; 6. Matrimony; 7. Extreme Unction:

"Lo! here the seven and no mo;

Look thou preché ofté tho.

The usage of the Church in the fifteenth century was set forth upon all these heads, and as Penance was associated with Confession, this gave rise to a section upon admonition against, and forms of penance for, the seven deadly sins. The seventh sacrament being extreme unction, the book ended with the last offices of the priest to his parishioner. Then added the author

"Now, dear priest, I pray thee,

For Goddes love, thou pray for me,
More I pray that thou me myng
In thy mass when thou dost sing;
And yet, I pray thee, levé brother,
Read this oft, and so let other;
Hide it not in hodymoke,7
Let other mo readé this boke;
The mo therein doth read and learn
The mo to meed it shalé turn;
It is i-made them to shown
That have no bookés of their own,
And other that beth of mean lore
That woldé fain conné more;
And thou that herein learnest most
Thanke 3erné the Holy Ghost,
That giveth wit to eaché mon
To do the godé that he con,
And by his travail and his deed
Giveth him heaven to his meed.
The meed and the joy of heaven light
God us granté for His might." Amen.

At the time when this was written, in the middle of the fifteenth century, for the instruction of the humbler. clergy, the battle against neglect of duty by those who should be leaders of the Church was steadily continued. Followers of Wiclif were upholding strenuously the Bible as the only rule of faith; were battling against what they believed to be traditions of men, injurious to discipline and doctrine; were contrasting the pride of the Court of Rome, of cardinals, and of lordly prelates, with the life and teaching of Christ, and with the unworldly zeal of the Apostles; were desiring in the Church pure

5 Myng, remember.

6 Leve, dear.

7 Hodymoke, equivalent to "hugger mugger," in concealment. So in Satiro-mastix, "One word, Sir Quintilian, in hugger mugger ;" and of Polonius in Hamlet, "We have done but greenly in hugger-mugger to inter him." In Icelandic "hugr," the mind, genitive "hugar," enters into such compounds as "hugar-angr" and "hugar-ekki," for grief and distress of mind, "hugar-glöggr," &c. "Mugga" means mistiness, and, formed in the same way, "hugar-mugga "would be mugginess or mistiness of mind, a mind obscured in haze. 8 3erne, earnestly.

Bible teaching from men who strove religiously themselves to follow it, with frequent instruction of the people, by preaching and explaining to them the Word of God.

Reginald Pecock, who was born not long before the death of Chaucer, was a Welshman, who studied at Oxford, and became Fellow of Oriel in 1417. In 1421 he was admitted to priest's orders; and a few years later was thriving in London, because his learning won him the goodwill of a friend of literature who was then protector of the kingdom, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Pecock was made Rector of Whittington College, founded by the Sir Richard Whittington who was thrice Lord Mayor of London (in 1397, 1406, and 1419). The College, dedicated to the Holy Ghost, was in the Church of St. Michael Royal, rebuilt by him, and finished by his executors .in 1424. It consisted of a Master and four Fellows, clerks, choristers, &c., and near it was an almshouse for thirteen poor people. The office of Master of this College was associated with that of Rector of the Church to which it belonged; and Pecock became Master of Whittington College and Rector of St. Michael Royal in 1431. Here he was resident for the next thirteen years, in the midst of the Lollard controversy, still active in study, and writing English tracts upon the religious questions of his time. In 1440 he published a Donet," or Introduction to the Chief Truths of the Christian Religion. In 1444 his friend Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, gave Pecock the bishopric of St. Asaph. In this office his busy mind was still active, and there were many critics of the opinions he expressed.

66

When Thomas Arundel was Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1396 to 1413, the action against the Lollards had been quickened, new provision had been made for the burning of heretics, and freedom of preaching had been checked throughout the Church. The reason for this was that, as preaching consisted in interpretation of the Scripture, the much interpreting by many minds would lead to diversities of explanation, encourage laymen to apply their reason to Church matters, spread confusion of opinion, and break up the oneness of the Church. Arundel's battle was for unity in Christendom. He died of a swelling of the tongue; and men said that was a judgment upon him for silencing the preachers. Three or four years after Arundel's death, Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham), who had been a successful general in the French wars, but at home was a friend and supporter of the Lollards, was, on Christmas Day, 1417, suspended over a fire, and roasted alive as a Lollard. Such acts were meant to daunt the spirit of the Lollards, and did silence some, while it confirmed in them the spirit of opposition. But to the braver minds it gave new energy of resistance to the action of the bishops. Then Reginald Pecock began a defence of the bishops, which could not please the Lollards because it was directed against them, and displeased many of those whose champion he made himself, because he brought their case into court before the body of the laity, by writing in English, addressing himself to them, appealing to their judgment with such arguments as then passed for reason among scholastic men; and was led by the deeper sense

66

of right in his impulsive nature, to make what those whom he defended looked upon as dangerous concessions. About the middle of the fifteenth century, perhaps in 1449, Reginald Pecock produced, on the religious struggle of his day, a long English book, entitled "The Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy." About the same time, in 1450, he was made Bishop of Chichester. In 1456 he was following up his "Repressor" with another English treatise designed to promote peace by the persuasion of the Lollards. It was called a Treatise on Faith;" and Pecock, admitting it be vain to attempt to over-rule the Lollards by telling them that "the church of the clergy may not err in matters of faith," trusted to argument, and said: "The clergy shall be condemned at the last day if, by clear wit, they draw not men into consent of true faith otherwise than by fire and sword and hangment; although," he said, "I will not deny these second means to be lawful, provided the former be first used." He upheld the Bible as the only rule of faith, was accused of under-rating the authority of the Fathers, even of the four great fathers and doctors of the Church-Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory-the four stots' of the allegory of Piers Plowman, who drew the harrow after the plough of the Gospel. It was urged that when the Fathers had been quoted to rebut an argument of Pecock's he had even been known to say, "Pooh, pooh!" In 1457, when, as Bishop of Chichester, Reginald Pecock took his place in a Council at Westminster, many temporal lords refused to take part in the business unless he were ejected. The divines called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to submit to them Pecock's books for scrutiny. He was required to come with his books to Lambeth on the eleventh of the next month, November. He was then ordered to quit the Council chamber. Twentyfour doctors, to whom Pecock's books were submitted, found heresies in them. John of Bury, an Austin friar, replied to the "Repressor" with a "Gladius Salomonis" ("Sword of Solomon "), attacking him for his appeal to reason, and opposing the conclusions which he held to be heretical. Finally, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier (Archbishop from A.D. 1454 to A.D. 1486) pronounced a sentence which is thus reported :

"Dear brother, Master Reginald, since all heretics are blinded by the light of their own understandings, and will not own the perverse obstinacy of their own conclusions, we shall not dispute with you in many words (for we see that you abound more in talk than in reasoning), but briefly show you that you have manifestly presumed to contravene the sayings of the more authentic doctors. For as regards the descent of Christ into hell, the Tarentine doctor, in an inquiry of his into the three creeds, says that it was left out of the Nicene and Athanasian creeds, because no heresy had then arisen against it, nor was any great question made about it. As to the authority of the Catholic Church, the doctor Augustine says, Unless the authority of the Church moved me, I should not believe the Gospel. As to the power of councils, the doctor Gregory says (and his words are placed in the Canon, Distinct. xv.), that the four sacred Councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon are not less to be

1 The four slots. See page 99, col. 2.

honoured and reverenced than the four holy Gospels. For in them (as he asserts), as on a square corner-stone, the structure of sacred faith is raised; and in them the rule of good life and manners consists. The other doctors also say with one mouth that although the sacred councils may err in matters of fact, yet they may not err in matters of faith, because in every general council, where two or three are gathered together in Christ's name, His Holy Spirit is there in the midst of them, who does not suffer them to err in faith or to depart from the way of truth. As regards the sense and understanding of Scripture, the doctor Jerome says, that whoever understands or expounds it otherwise than the meaning of the Holy Spirit requires, is an undoubted heretic. With whom agrees the Lincoln doctor (Grosteste), thus saying: Whoever excogitates any opinion contrary to Scripture, if he publicly teach it and obstinately adhere to it, is to be counted for a heretic." The archbishop having then enlarged on the necessity of removing a sickly sheep from the fold, lest the whole flock should be infected, offered Pecock his choice between making a public abjuration of his errors, and being delivered, after degradation, to the secular arm "as the food of fire and fuel for the burning." "Choose one of these two" (he added), "for the alternative is immediate in the coercion of heretics."

Pecock had admitted the right of the Church to compel submission, though he thought it was the Church's duty to persuade by reason; and it was in absolute accord with his own teaching that he should now submit to the force used against himself. He abjured the condemned opinions; and on the 4th of December, 1457, was brought in his robes as Bishop of Chichester to St. Paul's Cross, where he recanted publicly, in presence of twenty thousand people, and then delivered with his own hand three folios of his writing and eleven quartos to the public executioner, who cast them as publicly into a fire lighted for the purpose.

A fortnight later, the authorities of the University of Oxford went in procession to Carfax, and there burnt every copy of a book of Pecock's that could be found in the town. In March, 1459, Reginald Pecock was deprived of his bishopric, and sent by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Thorney Abbey, in Cambridgeshire, with these instructions for his safekeeping addressed to William Ryall, who was Abbot of Thorney between the years 1457 and 1464:—

"He shall have a secret closed chamber (having a chimney), and convenience within the abbey, where he may have sight to some altar to hear mass; and that he pass not the said chamber. To have but one person that is sad (grave) and well-disposed to make his bed, and to make him fire, as it shall need. That he have no books to look on, but only a portuous (breviary), a mass-book, a psalter, a legend, and a Bible. That he have nothing to write with; no stuff to write upon. That he have competent fuel according to his age, and as his necessity shall require. That he be served daily of meat and drink as a brother of the abbey is served when he is excused from the freytour (i.e., from dining in hall), and somewhat better after the first quarter, as his disposition and reasonable appetite shall desire, conveniently after the good discretion of the said abbot."

MSS. differ as to the amount paid to the abbey for the maintenance of Reynold (Reginald) Pecock,

"for his finding;" one account says forty pounds, another eleven. A fuller copy of the instructions, in which the sum named is eleven pounds, adds to the clause about the prisoner's bed-maker, "that no one else shall speak to him without leave, and in the presence of the abbot, unless the King or the Archbishop send to the abbey any man with writing specially in that behalf;" and another copy, which gives forty pounds as the sum paid-and xi. seems to have been only a clerical error for xl.-shows that part of the money was to be considered by the abbey payment to itself for its trouble and responsibility; for concerning "the said Reynold" there was a "Provided in all wise that all the forty pounds above written be not expended about his finding, but a competent part thereof, as his necessity shall require; and that the remanent thereof be disposed to the common weal of the behoof of the said place."

REGINALD PECOCK'S PROLOGUE TO 66 THE REPRESSOR."

"Undernyme thou, biseche2 thou, and blame thou, in all patience and doctrine."

Though these words were written by Saint Paul to Timothy, being a bishop, and not a lay person of the common people, yet in these words Saint Paul giveth not to Timothy instruction of any higher governance than that which also he might have given to a lay person of the common people, because that in these words Paul giveth instruction, not of correction (or of correcting by threatening and punishing), which longeth only to the overer anentis his netherer, and not to the netherer anentis his overer; but he giveth instruction of correption3 and of correpting, which not only longeth to an overer anentis his netherer, but also to a netherer anentis his overer, as it is open; 2 Thessalonians, ch. iii., and Matthew, ch. xviii., and as reason also it well confirmeth, so that it be do with honesty and reverence and with other thereto by reason due circumstances. Of which correption first opening or doing to wite, then next blaming, and afterward biseching, ben parties: and therefore these same words speaking only of correption, so by St. Paul dressed to Timothy, bishop, to whom longeth both to corrept and correct, mowe well enough be taken and dressed farther to each lay person, for to therein give to him instruction how he should rule him whenever he taketh upon him for to, in neighbourly or brotherly manner, corrept his Christian neighbour or brother, namelich, being in otherwise to him his overer. In which words (as it is open enough for to see) each man which taketh upon him the deeds of brotherly correption is informed that the parties of thilk correption (which ben undernyming, biseching and blaming) he do "in patience and in doctrine;" that is to say, over this, that for the while of his correpting he have patience, that he have also therewith such doctrine, knowing, or cunning whereby he can show and prove it to be a default for which he undernymeth and blameth, and the person so undernome and blamed to be guilty in the same default and sin.

And forasmuch as after it what is written (Romans, ch. x.) many have zeal of good will, but not after cunning, and have therewith taken upon them for to undernyme and blame openly and sharply, both in speech and in writing, the clergy of God's whole Church in earth, and for to bear an hand upon the said clergy that he is guilty in some governances as in defaults, which governances those blamers cunnen not to show, teach, and prove to be defaults and sins; and have thereby made full much indignation, disturbance, schism, and other evils for to rise and be continued in many persons by long time of many years: therefore, to each such ungrounded, and unready, and overhasty undernymer and blamer I say the before rehearsed words of St. Paul: Under

1 Undernyme (First-English "underniman," undertake), take in hand, reprehend.

Biseche, contend against. First-English "bisace," disputable, litigious.

3 Correption (Latin "correptio," a laying hold of), reproof, rebuke.

nyme thou, biseche thou, and blame thou, in al pacience and doctrine as though I should say thus: If thou canst teach, shew, and prove that the deed of which thou undernymest and blamest the person or persons is a default and a trespass, and then that he is guilty thereof, undernyme then and blame thou in thilk cunning, or doctrine, and in patience; and if thou canst not so shew, teach, and prove, thou oughtest be still, and not so undernyme and blame.

For else Saint Paul should not have said thus: Undernyme thou, blame thou, in all patience and doctrine; yea, and else thou oughtest undernyme and blame first thyself of this default that thou undernymest and blamest not, having the doctrine which thou oughtest have, ere than thou take upon thee for to undernyme and blame; and so to each such overhasty and unwise blamer might be said what is written, Luke, ch. iv., thus: O leech, heal thyself. Yea, peradventure, to some such blamers, and for somewhiles, might be said what is written, Luke, the vi. ch., thus: Hypocrite, take first the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see for to take the mote out of thin neighbour's eye. And furthermore, sithen it is so, that such unwise, undiscreet, and overhasty undernymers letten* the effect of their wise and discreet and well-avised undernymings which they in other times maken or mowe make to the clergy, and so given occasion that both they themself and their just undernymings ben despised and ben not set by, and so maken thereby themsilf to be letters of much good and causers of much evil, it is right great need that all those which taken upon them to be undernymers and blamers of the clergy keep well what is said to be the meaning of Saint Paul in the before-rehearsed words: Undernyme thou, biseche thou, blame thou, in all patience and doctrine.

Now that God, for His goodness and charity, cease the sooner in the common people such unwise, untrue, and overhasty undernyming and blaming made upon the clergy, and that for the harm and evils thereby coming now said: I shall do thereto somewhat of my part in this, that I shall justify eleven governances of the clergy, which some of the common people unwisely and untruly judgen and condemnen to be evil of which eleven governances, one is the having and using of images in churches, and another is pilgrimage in going to the memorials or the mind-places of saints, and that pilgrimages and offerings mowe be done well, not only privily, but also openly, and not only so of laymen, but rather of priests and of bishops. And this I shall do by writing of this present book in the common people's language, plainly, and openly, and shortly, and to be cleped The Repressing of ouer miche wijting the Clergie: and he shall have five principal parties. In the first of which parties shall be made in general manner the said repressing, and in general manner proof to the eleven said governances. And in the second, third, fourth, and fifth principal parties shall be made in special manner the said repressing, and in special manner the proofs to the same eleven governances; though all other governances of the clergy, for which the clergy is worthy to be blamed in brotherly or neighbourly correption, I shall not be about to excuse, neither defend; but pray, speak, and write, in all patience and doctrine, that the clergy forsake them, leave, and amend,

After this prologue, Pecock began his first part by finding the ground of much blame of the clergy by the laity in "three trowings," holdings, or opinions, of which the first was: That no governance is to be held

Letten, hinder. 5 Wijting, blaming. First-English "witan."