The Customs of Old England | Page 3

led the way to the Lady
Fast. Here and often the writer has supplemented his authorities out of
his own knowledge and research. It may be added that, in numerous
instances, indebtedness to able students (e.g., Sir George L. Gomme)
has been expressed in the text, and need not be repeated. Finally, it
would be ungrateful, as well as ungallant, not to acknowledge some
debt to the writings of the Hon. Mrs. Brownlow, Miss Ethel
Lega-Weekes, and Miss Giberne Sieveking. Ladies are now invading
every domain of intellect, but the details as to University costume
happened to be furnished by the severe and really intricate studies of
Professor E. G. Clark.
F. J. S.
TIVERTON, N. DEVON, January 22, 1911.

CONTENTS
ECCLESIASTICAL
CHAPTER PAGE
I. LEAGUES OF PRAYER 11 II. VOWESSES 18 III. THE LADY
FAST 27 IV. CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL 32 V. THE
BOY-BISHOP 39 VI. MIRACLE PLAYS 51
ACADEMIC
VII. ALMS AND LOANS 61 VIII. OF THE PRIVILEGE 71 IX. THE
"STUDIUM GENERALE" 91
JUDICIAL
X. THE ORDER OF THE COIF 115 XI. THE JUDGMENT OF GOD
127 XII. OUTLAWRY 150

URBAN
XIII. BURGHAL INDEPENDENCE 167 XIV. THE BANNER OF ST.
PAUL 187 XV. GOD'S PENNY 195 XVI. THE MERCHANT AND
HIS MARK 200
RURAL
XVII. RUS IN URBE 204 XVIII. COUNTRY PROPER 216
DOMESTIC
XIX. RETINUES 238
INDEX 249

THE CUSTOMS OF OLD ENGLAND

ECCLESIASTICAL
CHAPTER I
LEAGUES OF PRAYER
A work purporting to deal with old English customs on the broad
representative lines of the present volume naturally sets out with a
choice of those pertaining to the most ancient and venerable institution
of the land--the Church; and, almost as naturally it culls its first flower
from a life with which our ancestors were in intimate touch, and which
was known to them, in a special and excellent sense, as religious.
The custom to which has been assigned the post of honour is of
remarkable and various interest. It takes us back to a remote past, when
the English, actuated by new-born fervour, sent the torch of faith to
their German kinsmen, still plunged in the gloom of traditional
paganism; and it was fated to end when the example of those same

German kinsmen stimulated our countrymen to throw off a yoke which
had long been irksome, and was then in sharp conflict with their
patriotic ideals. It is foreign to the aim of these antiquarian studies to
sound any note of controversy, but it will be rather surprising if the
beauty and pathos of the custom, which is to engage our attention, does
not appeal to many who would not have desired its revival in our age
and country.[1] Typical of the thoughts and habits of our ancestors, it is
no less typical of their place and share of the general system of Western
Christendom, and in the heritage of human sentiment, since reverence
for the dead is common to all but the most degraded races of mankind.
That mutual commemoration of departed, and also of living, worth was
not exclusive to this country is brought home to us by the fact that the
most learned and comprehensive work on the subject, in its Christian
and mediæval aspects, is Ebner's "Die Klosterlichen
Gebets-Verbrüderungen" (Regensburg and New York, 1890). This
circumstance, however, by no means diminishes--it rather heightens-the
interest of a custom for centuries embedded in the consciousness and
culture of the English people.
First, it may be well to devote a paragraph to the phrases applied to the
institution. The title of the chapter is "Leagues of Prayer," but it would
have been simple to substitute for it any one of half a dozen others--less
definite, it is true--sanctioned by the precedents of ecclesiastical writers.
One term is "friendship"; and St. Boniface, in his letters referring to the
topic, employs indifferently the cognate expressions "familiarity,"
"charity" (or "love"). Sometimes he speaks of the "bond of
brotherhood" and "fellowship." Venerable Bede favours the word
"communion." Alcuin, in his epistles, alternates between the more
precise description "pacts of charity" and the vaguer expressions
"brotherhood" and "familiarity." The last he employs very commonly.
The fame of Cluny as a spiritual centre led to the term "brotherhood"
being preferred, and from the eleventh century onwards it became
general.
The privilege of fraternal alliance with other religious communities was
greatly valued, and admission was craved in language at once humble,
eloquent, and touchingly sincere. Venerable Bede implores the monks

of Lindisfarne to receive him as their "little household slave"--he
desires that "my name also" may be inscribed in the register of the holy
flock. Many a time does Alcuin avow his longing to "merit" being one
of some congregation in communion of love; and, in writing to the
Abbeys of Girwy and Wearmouth, he fails not to remind them