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 FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

73

ifay. It waa during this famous sieee that St. George, of England, was first invoked in the battle.

l-iiS. Died, Thomas Bradwardine an English- man, supposed to be a native of Haitfield, in the diocese of Chichester, was of Merton College, Oxon, about 1325. He obtained the appellation of " Doctor Profundus." Afterwards became confessor to Edward III. canon of Lichfield, and chancellor of St Paul's. He attended the king in his victorious expedition to France. In this year be was chosen to the see of Canterbunr br the chapter, and after some hesitation his efisction was confirmed by the king and the pope. Biadwardine was consecrated at Avignon; but survived his consecration scarce forty davs. He died at London before his inthronization had taken place.

1-349. Died, Richard RoUe, a hermit, of Hampole, in Yorkshire; who translated and wrote a gloss upon the psalter, and a metrical paraphrase of Uie book of Job, one of the first attempts at a translation into ihe English lan- guage, as spoken after the Conquest.

1350. The constable of France, the greatest man in the state, and one of the g^atest men of his age, could neither read nor write.

1360, March 18. In the roll of accounts re- lating to the onuunental painting and glazing of St. Stephen's chapel, Westminster, by order of Edward III. we find that the wages of the artists be from fivepence to one shilling per day, except to a person named John Bamaby, em- ployed at St. Stephen's chapel, in 1355, who was paid twopence per day.

1351, Augmt 1. (Lamnuu Day.) From an- cient authorities we find that this was the usual nominal day of commencing Harvett in England. By a useful act, called the "statute of labourers" 35th Edward III. in 1351, it is provided, 'that no carter, ploughman, or day (dairy mtud) or other servant, shall take in the time of sarcling, (weeding) or haymaking, but a penny the day, and mowers of meadows for the acre, fivepence, or by the day fivepence, and reapers of com in the first week of August, twopence, and the second threepence, and so till the end of August, andless in the country, where less was wont to be given without meat or drink or other courtesy; and that'all workmen bring openly in their hands to the market towns, their mstruments, and these shall be hired in a common place, and not privy. And that no servant go out of the town where he dwelleth in the winter, to serve in the summer, if he can get service in the same town, taking as before is said, saving that the people of the counties of StaJSbrd, I^ncaster, and Derby, and people of Craven, and of the marshes of Wales and Scotland, and other places may come in time of August, and labour in other counties, and safely return, as they were wont to do before this time. Bread oflerings of the first fruits at the season of harvest were universal; and our Saxon holyday, of half mass or loaf mass, expresses, although in shadow, the natural piety merelv of nations, called Heaiben, now extmgnished. The

Guild of August has lost its primitive importance by the reformation of the calendar. Wheat was from 3*. 4d. to 4». the quarter; a fat hog, two- years old, .3*. 4<i; clothing for a year of a common servant of husbandry, 3t.6d; a quarter of beans or pease, 1«; a quarter of barley, 10<2; a pair of shoes, 4d; two gallons of ale, 2a.

1351, Sept. 3. To George Cosrn, for one quartern of royal paper, to make the painters' patrens (patterns) tenpence.

1352. Lawrence Minot an English Poet, is supposed to have died in this year. Mr. Tyrwhit first discovered his manuscripts in the Cottonian library, and they were published in 1795, 8vo.

1367, Mai/ 24. In a blank page of Cosmestor's Scholtutic Hutory, deposited in the British mu- seum, it is stated, that this MS. was taken from the King of France, at the battle of Poictiers, fought on this day : it was afterwards purchased by Uie Earl of Salisbury for a hundred marks, and directed, by the last will of his Countess, to be sold for forty li>Tes. One hundred marks were equivalent to £66 13*. 4. Ad. per annum, and one shilling a day beside. Master carpenters had four-pence a day, their servants two-pence; the price of wheat was about 6>. M. a quarter.

1357. It was the prevuling opinion at this period, that even the Latin bibles should not be commonly allowed to the laity; when, therefore, archbishop Fitz Ralph, in this year, sent three or four secular priests of his diocese of Armagh into England, to study divinity in Oxford, they were forced very soon to return, because they could not find there a bible to be .<iold. And in- deed, had the copies of the bible been more fre- quent than they were, it is no wonder that they were made so little use of, if what the writers of these times, D. Wiclif, archdeacon Clemangis, Beleth, and others say, be true, that the clergy were generally so ifnorant, as not to be able to read Latin, or even con their Psalter. Our poet Chaucer represents the religious as gathering the bibles up and putting them into their libraries, and so imprisoning them from secularpriests and curates, and, therefore, hindering them from preaching the gospel to the people. — Lewit.

Matthew of Westminster, an English historian of this century, was very much esteemed for his veracity, acuteness, and diligence.

1368. About this period Richard Fitz-Ralph, archbishop of Armagh, possessed a translation, probably made by himself, of the New Testament in Irish. According to the information of Bale, quoted by archbishop Usher, this copy was con- cealed by him in a certain wall of nis church, with the following note : — ^ When this book is found, truth will be revealed to the world, or Christ shortly appear." This, observes the narra- tor, was written in the spirit of prophecy, for the book was found when the church of Armagh, was repairing, about the year of Christ, 1630.

Richard Fitz-Ralph, or Fitzraf, a man worthy for his christian zeal of immortal commendation.

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