【英文文学】The Customs of Old England.docx

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1、【英文文学】The Customs of Old EnglandPREFACEThe aim of the present volume is to deal with Old English Customs, not so much in their picturesque aspectthough that element is not wholly wantingas in their fundamental relations to the organized life of the Middle Ages. Partly for that reason and partly beca

2、use the work is comparatively small, it embraces only such usages as are of national (and, in some cases, international) significance. The writer is much too modest to put it forth as a scientific exposition of the basic principles of medi?val civilization. He is well aware that a book designed on t

3、his unassuming scale must be more or less eclectic. He is conscious of manifold gapsvalde deflenda. And yet, despite omissions, it is hoped that the reader may rise from its perusal with somewhat clearer conceptions of the world as it appeared to the average educated Englishman of the Middle Ages. T

4、his suggests the remark that the reader specially in view is the average educated Englishman of the twentieth century, who has not perhaps forgotten his Latin, for Latin has a way of sticking, while Greek, unless cherished, drops away from a man.The materials of which the work is composed have been

5、culled from a great variety of sources, and the writer almost despairs of making adequate acknowledgments. For years past admirable articles cognate to the study of medi?val relationships have been published from time to time in learned periodicals like Arch?ologia, the Arch?ological Journal, the An

6、tiquary, etc., where, being sandwiched between others of another character, they have been lost to all but antiquarian experts of omnivorous appetite. Assuredly, the average educated Englishman will not go in quest of them, but it may be thought he will esteem the opportunity, here offered, of gaini

7、ng enlightenment, if not in the full and perfect sense which might have been possible, had life been less brief and art not quite so long. The same observation applies to books, with this difference that, whereas in articles information is usually compacted, in some books at least it has to be picke

8、d out from amidst a mass of irrelevant particulars without any help from indices. If the writer has at all succeeded in performing his officewhich is to do for the reader what, under other circumstances, he might have done for himselfmany weary hours will not have been spent in vain, and the wearies

9、t are probably those devoted to the construction of an index, with which this book, whatever its merits or defects, does not go unprovided.Mere general statements, however, will not suffice; there is the personal side to be thought of. The great Chronicles and Memorials series has been served by man

10、y competent editors, but by none more competent than Messrs. Riley, Horwood, and Anstey, to whose introductions and texts the writer is deeply indebted. Reeves History of English Law is not yet out of date; and Mr. E. F. Hendersons select Documents of the Middle Ages and the late Mr. Serjeant Pullin

11、gs Order of the Coif, though widely differing in scope, are both extremely useful publications. Mr. Pollards introduction to the Clarendon Press selection of miracle plays contains the pith of that interesting subject, and Miss Toulmin Smiths York Plays and Miss Katherine Batess English Religious Dr

12、ama will be found valuable guides. Perhaps the most realistic description of a miracle play is that presented in a few pages of Morleys English Writers, where the scene lives before one. For supplementary details in this and other contexts, the writer owes something to the industry of the late Dr. B

13、rushfield, who brought to bear on local documents the illumination of sound and wide learning. A like tribute must be paid to the Rev. Dr. Cox, but having regard to his long and growing list of important works, the statement is a trifle ludicrous.One of the best essays on mortuary rolls is that of t

14、he late Canon Raine in an early Surtees Society volume, but the writer is specially indebted to a contribution of the Rev. J. Hirst to the Arch?ological Journal. The late Mr. Andrs article on vowesses, and Mr. Evelyn-Whites exhaustive account of the Boy-Bishop must be mentioned, andlest I forgetDr.

15、Cunninghams History of English Commerce. The late Mr. F. T. Elworthys paper on Hugh Rhodes directed attention to the Children of the Chapel, and Dom. H. F. Feasey 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

16、 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-Weeke

17、s, 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.ECCLESIASTICAL CHAPTER I LEAGUES OF PRAY

18、ERA 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 landthe Church; and, almost as naturally it culls its first flower from a life with w

19、hich 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, se

20、nt 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 idea

21、ls. 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 th

22、e 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, an

23、d 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 medi?val aspects, is Ebners Die Klosterlichen Gebets-Verbrüderungen (Regensburg and New York, 1890). This circumstance, h

24、owever, by no means diminishesit 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

25、have been simple to substitute for it any one of half a dozen othersless definite, it is truesanctioned 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

26、 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 f

27、ame 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 touching

28、ly sincere. Venerable Bede implores the monks of Lindisfarne to receive him as their little household slavehe 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 w

29、riting to the Abbeys of Girwy and Wearmouth, he fails not to remind them of the brotherhood they have granted him.The term brother, in some contexts, bore the distinctive meaning of one to whom had been vouchsafed the prayers and spiritual boons of a convent other than that of which he was a member,

30、 if, as was not always or necessarily the case, he was incorporated in a religious order. The definition furnished by Ducange, who quotes from the diptych of the Abbey of Bath, proves how wide a field the term covers, even when restricted to confederated prayer:Fratres interdum inde vocantur qui in

31、ejusmodi Fraternitatem sive participationem orationum aliorumque bonorum spiritualium sive monachorum sive aliarum Ecclesiarum et jam Cathedralium admissi errant, sive laici sive ecclesiastici.Thus the secular clergy and the laity were recognized as fully eligible for all the benefits of this high p

32、rivilege, but it is identified for the most part with the functions of the regular clergy, whose leisured and tranquil existence was more consonant with the punctual observance of the custom, and by whom it was handed down to successive generations as a laudable and edifying practice importing much

33、comfort for the living, and, it might be hoped, true succour for the pious dead.In so far as the custom was founded on any particular text of Scripture, it may be considered to rest on the exhortation of St. James, which is cited by St. Boniface: Pray for one another that ye may be saved, for the ef

34、fectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. St. Boniface is remembered as the Apostle of Germany, and when, early in the eighth century, he embarked on his perilous mission, he and his company made a compact with the King of the East Angles, whereby the monarch engaged that prayers shou

35、ld be offered on their behalf in all the monasteries in his dominion. On the death of members of the brotherhood, the tidings were to be conveyed to their fellows in England, as opportunity occurred. Not only did Boniface enter into leagues of prayer with Archbishops of Canterbury and the chapters a

36、nd monks of Winchester, Worcester, York, etc., but he formed similar ties with the Church of Rome and the Abbey of Monte Cassino, binding himself to transmit the names of his defunct brethren for their remembrance and suffrage, and promising prayers and masses for their brethren on receiving notice

37、of their decease. Lullus, who followed St. Boniface as Archbishop of Mayence, and other Anglo-Saxon missionaries extended the scope of the confederacy, linking themselves with English and Continental monasteriesfor instance, Salzburg. Wunibald, a nephew of St. Boniface, imitating his uncles example,

38、 allied himself with Monte Cassino. We may add that in Alcuins time York was in league with Ferrires; and in 849 the relations between the Abbey and Cathedral of the former city and their friends on the Continent were solemnly confirmed.Having given some account of the infancy or adolescence of the

39、custom, we may now turn to what may be termed, without disrespect, the machinery of the institution. The death of a dignitary, or of a clerk distinguished for virtue and learning, or of a simple monk has occurred. Forthwith his name is engrossed on a strip of parchment, which is wrapped round a stic

40、k or a wooden roll, at each end of the latter being a wooden or metal cap designed to prevent the parchment from slipping off. After the tenth century, at certain periodssay once a yearthe names of dead brethren were carried to the scriptorium, where they were entered with the utmost precision, and

41、with reverent art, on a mortuary roll.The next step was to summon a messenger, and fasten the roll to his neck, after which the brethren, in a group at the gateway, bade him God-speed. These officials were numerous enough to form a distinct class, and some hundreds of them might have been found wend

42、ing their way simultaneously on the same devout errand through the Christian Kingdoms of the West, in which they were variously known as geruli, cursores, diplomates, and bajuli. We may picture them speeding from one church or one abbey to another, bearing their mournful missive, and when England ha

43、d been traversed, crossing the narrow seas to resume their melancholy task on the Continent. At whatever place he halted, the messenger might count on a sympathetic reception; and in every monastery the roll, having been detached from his neck, was read to the assembled brethren, who proceeded to re

44、nder the solemn chant and requiem for the dead in compliance with their engagements. On the following day the messenger took his leave, lavishly supplied with provisions for the next stage.Monasteries often embraced the opportunity afforded by these visits to insert the name of some brother lately d

45、eceased, in order to avoid waiting for the dispatch of their own annual encyclical, and so to notify, sooner than would otherwise have been possible, the death of members for whom they desired the prayers of the association.Mortuary rolls, many examples of which have been found in national collectio

46、nssome of them as much as fifty or sixty feet in lengthcontain strict injunctions specifying that the house and day of arrival be inscribed on the roll in each monastery, together with the name of the superior, the purpose being to preclude any failure on the part of the messenger worn out with the

47、fatigue, or daunted by the hardships and perils, of the journey. The circuit having been completed, the parchment returned to the monastery from which it had issued, whereupon a scrutiny was made to ascertain, by means of the dates, whether the errand had been duly performed. After many months absen

48、ce, says Dr. Rock, the messenger would reach his own cloister, carrying back with him the illuminated death-bill, now filled to its fullest length with dates and elegies, for his abbot to see that the behest of the chapter had been duly done, and the library of the house enriched with another docume

49、nt.One of the Durham rolls is thirteen yards in length and nine inches in breadth. Consisting of nineteen sheets of parchment, it was executed on the death of John Burnby, a Prior of Durham, in 1464. His successor, Richard Bell, who was afterwards Bishop of Durham, and the convent, caused this roll, commemorating the virtues of the late Prior and William of Ebchester, another predecessor, to be circulated