Not only was such the care taken of them, but the service books were almost always, if manuscript, upon vellum; and in later years, if printed and on paper, then the material was strong and stout enough to last a reasonable time. Again when the ritual and liturgy of the Church was altered, it was a sudden change the old books were not to be used until worn out and then to be supplied by the new Offices; but on a certain day named they were to be given up entirely and for ever. Now it is not to be supposed but that two-thirds at least of those then in use were perfect and sound and of the remaining third there could not have been a large proportion whose time of service would happen to have nearly expired, and which might be properly, not thrown upon a dunghill but, reverently destroyed.80 Once more consider the amazing number of the "The question is frequently asked, what should be done with Church Vestments, &c. which have become useless from age or injury? The Canon Law tells us : "Altaris palla, cathedra, candelabrum, et velum, si fuerint vetustate consumpta, incendio dentur; quia non licet ea, quæ in sacrario fuerint, male tractari; sed incendio universa tradantur. Cineres quoque eorum in baptisterium inferantur, ubi nullus transitum habeat; aut in pariete, aut in fossis pavimentorum jactentur, ne introeuntium pedibus inquinentur. (Corpus Juris Can. Vol. 1. p. 460.)" Harington: on con 81 books. Not only every one of the ten thousand parishes of England was fully furnished, but in single parishes there were often more churches than one, and in single churches there were chantries and chapels, also supplied. Add to these, the monasteries and cathedrals with their hundreds (it may be said) of service books; 82 the private chapels of the nobility; the copies in the possession of the laity: and will it be beyond the mark to assert that at the date above-mentioned there were not less than two hundred and fifty thousand volumes in actual use, besides those which might have been laid up and treasured in the archives? 83 81 The parish church of S. John the Baptist, Glastonbury, in the year 1421, had in use "iij missals, iij graduals, j psalter, iij antiphonals, j legend, ij collections, j processional." Collections I conclude were the same as the "colet-boke" mentioned before. Warner. Hist. of Glast. Appendix. xcix. 82 Take for example, the sum of some of the Church-books which belonged to Ramsay Abbey, from the inventory before cited. (Cotton Rolls. xi. 16.) There are entered at the end, Breviaries, "lxx." Psalters," centum." Hymnals, "iiij." Graduals, "xxxij." Processionals, " xxix." 83 In speaking just above of ten thousand parishes in England, and in calculating the number of Service Books at 250,000, I must surely be within the actual number. Sir Robert Atkyns in his Glou cestershire speaks of "45,000 There is no difficulty however in accounting for the loss of them. The same spirit which prompted the reformers to drive religious men into the world, who had forsaken it as they had hoped for ever, by dismantling their houses and tearing the roofs off over their heads, by " pulling down the rooks' nests," as one advised who in after years died disgracefully upon the scaffold,-the same spirit suggested a sure plan to prevent men worshipping any longer after the manner of their forefathers. This was to destroy the books in which that ancient way of worship was contained. The storm of alteration then sweeping over the land, from one end of England to the other, with daily increasing violence; which would have spared, had God not checked it, but little of former belief and practice; which overwhelmed tower and church and cloister in one common ruin, was successful in this stroke which it aimed. I am not speaking of the comparative excellence of the new service books, or of the errors and superstitions of the old; this is another subject: but I do think it was for the first time seen in the Christian Church, that in order to make way for a new ritual land to the begging friars: which calculation of course would be much influenced, by an additional five or six thousand at the commencement. And there is other evidence that the statement of Sir R. Atkyns, putting the number at 45,000, was not incorrect. For example, in the British Museum are some memoranda entered at the end of a MS. of the xv th century, in a contemporary hand: "Sunt in regno Anglie ecclesie parochiales 46100. Sunt in eodem regno villate, &c." Bibl. Reg. MS. 8. B. xv. And another manuscript in the same collection has at the end some similar entries: among them, "Sunt in Anglia ecclesie parochiales 45011." Bibl. Reg. MS. 8. D. iv. and order of public worship, it was thought necessary to obliterate, if possible, by the strong arm of power, against the will of the majority of the clergy and the people, all traces of a preceding one, Christian also and Catholic, which for a thousand years had been the object of their reverence and love. This was indeed looking upon it after the fashion of those who, in the days of the Apostles, burnt the books of magic and of "curious arts;" a view not unlikely to be taken by men who, as some high in authority did not hesitate to declare, looked upon the panis benedictus as "conjured bread." It will not be improper to add here a few of the records and particulars of this event. In 1534, a proclamation was issued, "giving warning, monition, and charge to all manner of ecclesiastical persons within every diocess-to cause all manner prayers, orasions, rubricks, canons of mass-books, and all other books in the churches, wherein the Bishop of Rome is named," to be cleared from his name and title, and that they should be utterly eradicated and rased out.** 84 Within about four years after, considering what was taking place, it is not to be wondered at that S. Thomas of Canterbury should have been especially obnoxious. It was not enough that the murdered Archbishop should have been ridiculously cited and condemned at Westminster, a fact which has been denied; 85 84 Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 3. p. 773. 85 See a note in Cranmer's Remains. Vol. 1. p. 262. But a confutation which against many dates (viz. of the citation, the sentence, and the execution) rests upon one date, and that not of a document, but in a lady's diary, does not seem worth much. I think against the fact the strong point is, that K. Henry's advisers or that his shrine should be robbed of its rich jewels, which were a sufficient object alone to excite the cupidity of the King's advisers, even though the acts of his life were insufficient for their purpose; but it was further ordered, by "the King's Grace," charged and commanded, that "from henceforth the said Thomas Becket shall not be esteemed and reputed a saint,-and that henceforth the day used to be festival in his name, shall not be observed, nor the service, office, antiphons, collects and prayers in his name read, but rased and put out of all the books." 86 We find in copies which have come down to us frequent mutilations, the consequence of this injunction: the service erased, or blotted with inquisition ink (as it was called, impossible to be removed and making the print illegible), or cut out altogether. Sometimes it was merely crossed through with a pen. But two or three years afterwards, other steps were to be taken the Convocation of 1542 was quietly told "regiam majestatem velle," that the King would have "all mass books, antiphoners, portuisses in the Church of England newly examined, reformed, and castigated from all manner of mention of the Bishop of Rome's name, from all apocryphas, feigned legends, superstitious orations, collects, versicles, and responses: did not commonly trouble themselves with any such egregious follies before they proceeded to plunder for it, an expression in the King's Injunction, cited in the text," Forasmuch as it appeareth now clearly, that Thomas Becket. &c." 85 Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 3. p. 848. Mr. Todd, in his Life of Archbishop Cranmer, states that he had already treated the memory of Becket with disrespect, at the time of his festival. He gives no authority, and it needs no comment, except the expression of a hope that the author was mistaken. |