X.—Extracts from Lincoln Episcopal Visitations in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries

Edward Peacock Esq., F.S.A.

doi:10.1017/S0261340900000850

X.—Extracts from Lincoln Episcopal Visitations in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012

Edward Peacock Esq., F.S.A.

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The following extracts have been made by me, by the kind permission of the Bishop of Lincoln, from certain fragments of visitation books and detached papers connected therewith in the possession of his lordship. They range from 1473 to 1627, and are, as will be seen, of very varying degrees of interest; some of them are perhaps so trivial that it may seem almost an intrusion to bring them under the notice of the Society of Antiquaries; but all have at least a local interest, and the originals from which they are copied are many of them in a state of such rapid decay that it is to be feared, if they be not now preserved by being printed, that all memory of them may be lost.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , 1885 , pp. 249 - 269

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900000850 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1885

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References

^{page 249 note a} “Lego ecclesie de Lyndewode, ubi natus sum, antiphonarium meum, minorem de tribus.”—Test. Will. Lyndewode, in Archaeologia, vol. xxxiv. p. 418Google Scholar.

^{page 250 note a} Peacock, Eng. Ch. Furniture, p. 40.

^{page 250 note b} P. 46.

^{page 252 note a} Nicholas Bradbridge, S.T.P., was Chancellor of Lincoln from 1512 to 1532.—Hardy's Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Anglic. vol. ii. p. 93Google Scholar.

^{page 252 note b} The air, or perhaps rather the visible heavens.—See Archaeologia, vol. XXIII. p. 31Google Scholar; Twelfth Night, act I. sc. 1; Julius Caesar, act I. sc. 3.

^{page 252 note c} Shoes.—See Cathoiicon Anglicum, p. 281: “Payd to Henry Shomaker for a pay re of pynson shoyse.” “Ace. of Lestranges of Hunstanton “in Archaeologia, vol. xxv. p. 511Google Scholar.

^{page 252 note d} “Una toga de Musterdevyles cum capicio” occurs in an inventory of the middle of the fifteenth century, printed in W. D. Macray's Notes from the Muniments of Magdalen College, Oxford, p. 19. Mr. J. E. T. Rogers says that “This article is cloth, manufactured at Montivilliers, in mediæval Latin, Monasterium Villare, a town near Harfleur, in Normandy.” The earliest date of the word he has met with is 1450.—Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in Eng. vol. iv. p. 566Google Scholar. Cf. Fowler, Ripon Act Book, p. 286.

^{page 252 note e} A step, a flight of stairs.

“Grece, or tredyl, or steyr, gradus.”—Prompt. Parv. vol. i. p. 209Google Scholar.

“The lady … …

Glydes down by the grece & gos to the king.”

—Early Eng. Allit. Poems, E. E. Text Soc. p. 85.

“Mending of the grysts before the high altar, 4d.”—Ch. Ace. of Stoke Courcy in Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vol. vi. p. 349Google Scholar.

“Let me speak like yourself; and lay a sentence,

Which as a grise or step may help these lovers.”—Othello, act I. sc. 3.

There is a flight of steps in the city of Lincoln called Greetstone, or Grecian stairs, which is a corruption of this word. The late Mr. Davies was of opinion that the name Grecian Steps, at York, had arisen from a similar confusion.—Walks through York, p. 204. A street at Scarborough goes by the name of Long Greece.—J. B. Baker, Hist. Scarborough, p. 394.

^{page 253 note a} Amber. “x bedes of lambr’.”—Inv. of Guild of B.V. Mary of Boston, 1534, in Peacock's Eng. Ch. Furniture, p. 95. “I paire of beedes of laumber.”—Louth Ch. Inventory, 1486. Lammer beads are still spoken of in Northumberland.—J. F. Fowler, Ripon Act Book, p. 286 n.

^{page 254 note a} Stoneley Priory was in the parish of Kimbolton. It was a house of Augustinian Canons.—Mon. Aug. vol. vi. p. 476Google Scholar.

^{page 254 note b} The passage is perhaps worth copying as being a pretty complete catalogue of such persons as dealt with curious arts at the time of the Reformation.—“It serveth all witches in their witchery, all sorcerers, charmers, enchanters, dreamers, soothsayers, necromancers, conjurors, cross-diggers, devil raisers, miracledoers, dog-leeches, and bawds; for without a mass they cannot well work their feats.”—The Latter Examination of Mistress Anne Ashewe, Parker Soc. Reprint, p. 236.

^{page 255 note a} Perhaps Market Harborough in Leicestershire.

^{page 255 note b} Query, since.

^{page 256 note a} Pp. 38, 159, &c.

^{page 257 note a} Seaton, in Rutlandshire, near Uppingham.

^{page 257 note b} Uncle—

‘Whilst they were young, Cassibalane their eme,

Was by the people chosen in their sted.”

—Spencer, Faerie Queen, book ii. canto x. st. xlvii.

^{page 257 note c} “Selff” is here written over the word child, which has been erased.

^{page 258 note a} John Prynn. LL.D., Prebendary of Lincoln 1528; Treasurer 1532; Subdean 1535; died 1558: buried in Lincoln Cathedral.—Le Neve, , Fasti Eccl. Anglic, ed. Hardy, vol. ii. pp. 40, 90, 158Google Scholar.

^{page 258 note b} Nicholas Bradbridge, vide ante.

^{page 258 note c} The last prioress. She surrendered the houses 7 Oct. 1539.—Mon. Ang. vol. vi. p. 567Google Scholar.

^{page 259 note a} An Augustinian Canonry, near Melton Mowbray.—Mon. Ang. vol. vi. p. 422Google Scholar.

^{page 259 note b} Mon. Ang. vol. vi. p. 187Google Scholar.

^{page 259 note c} The word “infirmus” is entered in the margin.

^{page 260 note a} Mon. Ang. vol. vi. p. 462Google Scholar.

^{page 260 note b} Contracts of marriage such as this were considered binding in conscience until the passing of the Marriage Act of 26 George II. c. 33. In Aphra Behn's play The Town Fop, published in 1677, Bellmour says:—

“If you must yet delay me,

Give me leave not to interest such wealth without security,

And I, Celinda, will instruct you how to satisfy my tears.

Bear witness to my vows— [Kneels and takes her by the hand.

May every plague that Heaven inflicts on sin

Fall down in thunder on my head

If e'er I marry any but Celinda,

Or if I do not marry thee, fair maid.”

Celinda answers—

“And here I wish as solemnly the same:

May ill arive to me,

If e'er I marry any man but Bellmour.”

The lady's brother and nurse were present. The latter adds—

“We are witnesses good as a thousand.”—Act ii. sc. i.

The whole plot of the play turns on the fact that this was a valid marriage.

^{page 261 note a} See the sentence in Myre's Instruc. for parish priest.—E. E. Text Soc. p, 23.

^{page 261 note b} Harlott was formerly applied to both sexes.

“A sturdy harlot went hem ay behind

That was hir hostes man, and bare a sakke,

And what men yave hem, laid it on his bakke.”

—Chaucer, Sumpnours Tale, 1. 7336.

^{page 262 note a} The word “father” seems to have been omitted here.

^{page 262 note b} I cannot identify this place.

^{page 262 note c} Landon, E., in Life, by Layman Blanchard. vol. ii. p. 99Google Scholar.

^{page 263 note a} Cockayne, , Leechdoms, I. xxviiiGoogle Scholar.

^{page 263 note b} Bishop Hooper, in his Declaration of the Ten Commandments (1548), tells his readers that among Christian folk there are people “that by the abuse of God's name, through the help of the devil,” cure men, of sickness, and that “not many years sith I was borne in hand of a poor man that erred by ignorance that this medicine could heal all diseases, + Jesus + Job + habuit + vermes + Job + patitur + vermes + in + nomine + Patris + et + Filii + et + Spiritus Sancti + Amen + lama zabacthani +.”—Early Writings (Parker Soc.), p. 328.

^{page 264 note a} “Shearman, one who shears worsteds, fustians,” &c.—Lower, M. A., Eng. Surnames, 4th edition, vol. i. p. 114Google Scholar.

“Villain, thy father was a plasterer;

And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?”

—Henry VI. Part II. act iv. sc. ii.

^{page 264 note b} Naughtv pack seems to have been a common designation of a harlot. In Richard Bernard's Terence in English, 5th ed. 1629, we read “Let us now preuent this whilst time is …. before that his naughty packs shrewd crafts and fained teares do worke againe his loue-sicke minde vnto pittie and compassion,” p. 50. The word was sometimes used to designate an evil living person of the male sex.

^{page 265 note a} A mass of Scala Coeli we believe to have been one said at an altar which had received privileges like unto those of the Chapel of Scala Coeli in Rome.

“In þat place a chapelle ys

Scala cely called hit ys

Laddere of heuen men clepeþ hit

In honour of our lady be my wytte

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Who-so syngeþ masse yn þat chappelle

For any frend, he loseþ hym fro helle

He may hym brynge þhorow purgatory y-wys

In to þe blys of paradys.”

—Political Relig. and Love Poems (E. E. T. S.) pp. 118, 119.

^{page 266 note a} Longinus, Longius or Longias is the name given in mediaeval mythology to the soldier who pierced our Lord's side. The Legenda Aurea of Jacob a Voragine says that “Longinus fuit quidatn centurio, qui cum aliis militibus cruci domini adstans jussu Pylati latus domini lancea perforavit et videns signa, quae fiebant, solem scilicet obscuratum et terrae motum in Christum credidit. Maxime ex eo, ut quidam dicunt. quod cum ex infirmitate vel senectute oculi ejus caligassent, de sanguine Christi per lanceam decurrente fortuito oculos suos tetigit et protinus clare vidit.”—Cap. Xlvii. ed. Tho. Graesse, 1850, p. 202. The name has almost certainly been derived from λόγχη, a lance. There are many references to this story in Prof. Skeats's “Notes to Piers the Plowman” (E. E. T. S.), p. 403. See Prof. George Stephens's Prof. S. Bugge's Studies in Northern Mythology Shortly examined, p. 38, for the relation of the story of Longinus to the Baldor myth.

^{page 266 note b} Hales Abbey, Gloucestershire, was a place of great resort for pilgrims on account of this reputed relic of the holy blood which was given to that church by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, in 1272. — Mon. Ang. vol. v. p. 686Google Scholar.

^{page 266 note c} A horse—

‘He also hath to don more than ynongh

To kepe him on his capel out of the slouch.”

—Chaucer, Manciple's Prologue, 1. 17013.

^{page 268 note a} This must, of course, be understood as three households.

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X.—Extracts from Lincoln Episcopal Visitations in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries

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