Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/32

Rh "used in Cornish beyond all remembrance." This same Dr. Moreman is mentioned in the petition (or rather demand) presented to Edward VI. by the Cornwall and Devon insurgents, in favour of the old form of worship. One paragraph of this is as follows: "We will not receive the new service, because it is but like a Christmas game. We will have our old service of Matins, Mass, Evensong, and Procession as it was before; and we the Cornish, whereof certain of us understand no English, do utterly refuse the new service."

In the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, during the course of the many discussions on church matters, a number of articles were drawn up, to judge by their general tone, by the extreme Protestant party, and a copy of these, taken from a MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, occurs in Egerton MS. 2350, f. 54, in the British Museum. They are entitled "Articles drawn out by some certaine, and were exhibited to be admitted by authority, but not so admitted," and their date, to judge by accompanying letters, etc., is about 1560. The last article is "A punishment for such as cannot say the Catechisme," and in it there occurs the following sentence: "Item that it may be lawfull for such Welch or Cornish children as can speake no English to learne the Præmises in the Welch tongue or Cornish language."

In the same reign, but somewhat later, a report on England, addressed to Philip II. of Spain by an Italian agent, speaks thus of Cornwall: "Li hauitanti sono del tutto differenti di parlare, di costume et di leggi alii Inglesi; usano le leggi imperiali cosi como fa ancola li Walsche loro vicini; quali sono in prospettiva alia Irlanda et sono similmente tenuti la maggior parte Cattolici." However, since the agent insists that the Severn divides Cornwall from England, he can hardly have known much about the country. The report occurs