Introduction

INTRODUCTION. The volume open s with a series of Indulgences granted by the Article I. Pope or by individual Bishops. The archives of the Cathedral are very rich in these Indulgences, for no less than seventy-six, ranging from 1201 to 1387, are preserved in the Archive Room." In the Southern Province, Canterbury granted six Indulgences, London seven, Bath and Chichester one each; Exeter, Lincoln, Rochester, and Winchester, two each; Coventry and Lichfield, and "Worcester, three; Ely, Salisbury, and Hereford, five; whilst Norwich, still more liberally, granted seven. Nor was Wales behindhand, S. David's, Bangor, and LlandafT granting two, two, and three respect- ively. In the Northern Province the interest somewhat diminished, for York, Carlisle, and Durham granted but one Indulgence apiece. Ireland, however, did not forget the wants of London, for the Bishops of Caahel, Connor, Down, Elphin, Killaloe, and Leighlin lend their aid. A single Indulgence from the Bishop of Brechin represents the contribution from Scotland. Nor are foreign prelates slow to indicate their sympathy; Cardinal Otho, Cardinal Siran de Sully (Archbishop of Bourges), and the Archbishop of Cologne add their names to the long list. Sometimes the object sought is the repair of the Cathedral generally, and the contribution is to be made adfabricam Ecclesiee; sometimes to particular works in the Cathedral, adpartem australem, veins et novutn opus, ad fabricam veteris operis et Campanilis, ad * In Appendix A. will be found a tabnlated list of these Indulgences, which I have compiled from the originals. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 01 Oct 2021 at 04:42:12, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042170200006446 XIV INTRODUCTION. Capellam S. Maria et S. Johannis Baptistce noviter fundatam, in which cases the Indulgences acquire some additional interest as supplying the precise date at which a portion of the Cathedral was built or repaired. In one instance the proceeds are to be devoted ad fabricam Ecclesiee vel sustentationem luminaris. Six of the later Indulgences were granted for the repair of Paul's Cross, which had been grievously shaken by winds and storms, and by the great earthquake of 1382.a It was, in fact, nearly ruinous: and Archbishop Courtney issues what we should jiow-a-days call an appeal for its restoration. This great earthquake has left its mark upon our national annals. There are two very curious references to it in Political Poems and Songs relating to English History, edited by Thomas Wright, in the series of Chronicles pub- lished under the superintendence of the Master of the Rolls. The first is found in a song " On the Earthquake of 1382," printed from u manuscript in the British Museum:b "For sothe this was a Lord to drede, So sodeynly mad Boon agast; Of gold and selver thei tok non hede, But out of ther houses ful sone thei past. Chaumbres, chymeneys, al to-barst, Chirches and castelles fonle gon fare; Pinacles, steples, to grounde hit cast; And al was for warnyng to be ware. The rysing of the conraynes in londe, The pestilens, and the eorthe-qwake, Theose threo thinges, I vinderstonde, Beoth tokenes the grete vengaunce and wrake That schulde falle for synnes sake, As this clerkes conne declare. Now may we chese to leve or take, For warnyng have we to be ware."' il See Appendix L. B Addit. MSS. 22, 283, fol. 132, v». 13 Political Poems and Songs, I. 251, 252. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 01 Oct 2021 at 04:42:12, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042170200006446 INTRODUCTION. XV The second occurs in the same volume in a song " On the Council of London." The earthquake happened at the very moment when the Council was proceeding to business. " In hoc terrasmotu ab hora diei, Quia tune convenerant Scribas, Pharisaei, Cum summis sacerdotibus contra Christum Dei, Vultus irse patuit divinas faciei. With an O and an I, sanctos diffamarnnt, Per hssreses et schismata quas falsa patrarunt." a The mention of Paul's Cross suggests that this may be a very suitable place in which to record an interesting discovery. Mr. F. C. Penrose; the Cathedral Surveyor, who had for some little time been carrying on a series of excavations in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral with a view to the discovery of the exact site of the Cloisters, Chapter House; and other portions of Old S. Paul's, communicated to the Royal Institute of British Architects some important Notes on S. Paul's Cathedral, with an excellent plan of the existing Church superimposed on that of the old. The plan is dated 27 January, 1879, and gives the recent discoveries (of the sites of the Cloister and Chapter House) up to that date; En- couraged by his great successes Mr. Pehrose continued his investi- gations; and on April 2; 1879,1 had the great pleasure of receiving from him a note, in which he says, "We have found the foundations of S. Paul's Cross." On the following day Mi-. Penrose addressed a letter to the Society of Antiquaries (printed in their Proceedings, viii. 93), in which he says: " We hare discovered the site of S. Paul's Cross. What has been found is evi- dently fb&pfidivm, an octagon of about 37 feet across. I inclose a tracing, which shows that a portion of the podium actually coincided with the wall of the present Cathedral. The old walls would have been about twelve feet distant. The site was thus a good deal nearer the Cathedral walls than is shown in your Society's picture, or in any of the old representations. It conforms, however, very well to the 0 Political Poems and Songs, I. 253, 264, arid Introduction lxiii-iv. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 01 Oct 2021 at 04:42:12, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042170200006446 XVI INTRODUCTION. suitableness of things, for there were galleries formed between the old buttresses, and the occupants of these galleries would have had good places. The sides of the cross were not parallel to the axis of the old Cathedral, but occupy very nearly the directions of the cardinal points." Occasionally, the pilgrims to S. Paul's are enjoined to pray for the souls of particular persons: as, for example, for Ralph de Bal- dock, successively Dean aud Bishop, who is named in twelve indulgences; Eichard de Wendover, Prebendary of Rugtnere, who died in 1252; Roger Niger, Bishop of London, who is named in eleven; Alexander de Swerford, Treasurer from 1231 to 1246; Henry de Cornhill, Dean from 1244 to 1254; Hervey de Borham, Dean from 1274 to 1276; Henry de Wingeham, Archdeacon of Middlesex; and for the lady Ysabelle de Brus, daughter of William, King of Scotland, and wife to Robert, Lord Bruce of Annandale. Sometimes a particular Altar a is to be visited; sometimes special prayers are to be said, as, the Lord's Prayer, or the Angelic Salu- tation; sometimes a particular day is named on which the Cathedral is to be visited (usually the Feast of the Dedication); but frequently the only condition is the usual one that the devotee must have made the customary confession. The term during which the Indul- gence is to continue in force is indicated in five instances: in one of these it is to be valid per septennium, in the remainder in per- petuum. The number of days indulgence to be obtained varies very greatly, from eight days (granted by the Bishop of Killaloe in 1255) to the grant of one hundred days of Cardinal Siran de Sully, and the still more munificent grant of one year and forty days of Pope Innocent IV.: forty-five out of the seventy-six indulgences agree in granting forty days. We cannot but share in the regret expressed by Dean Milman,b " A list of Altars in the Cathedral will be found in Appendix B. » Milman, Annals, 160, 161, 619-521. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 01 Oct 2021 at 04:42:12, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042170200006446 INTRODUCTION. XV11 that we are unable to ascertain the proceeds of these various indulgences; on this point the Cathedral Archives are, I believe, silent. These documents seem to have served the purpose which Briefs and King's Letters served in later times. A disquisition as to the exact effect and value of these Indul- gences would be unsuited to the present volume: it will suffice to quote the words of Dean Milman in his Latin Christianity.11 " The Indulgence, originally the remission of so much penance, of so many days, weeks, months, years; or of that which was the commutation for penance, so much almsgiving or munificence to churches or churchmen, in sound at least extended (and mankind, the high and low vulgar of mankind, are governed by sound) its significance: it was literally understood, as the remission of so many years, sometimes centuries, of Purgatory." The examples printed in the present volume have been very care- fully selected, with a view to exhibit the principal types of the Indulgences still preserved in our Record Room.

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