Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/620

 612 SHORT NOTICES October Another large instalment has now appeared in print of the Registrum Johannis de Pontissara (Canterbury and York Society, parts lix, Ixiii, Lxvi, 1918-20), and may be commended to all who try to understand the beauties, limitations, humours, and intricacies of medieval life. There are many documents relating to two remarkable popes Celestine V, who flinched from a burden too heavy for him, and Boniface VIII, who, though no fool, rushed in where angels fear to tread, and paid tragically the penalty of his indiscretions. A characteristic reflexion of his outlook is given on pp. 550-4, in the description of what was said and done in the Lateran in April 1303, when the pope came to terms with his enemy Albert of Austria, ' that we with him may confound the pride of the French '. There is much valuable material for Edward I's continental policy, for Bishop John was himself ' with horses and arms ' responsible for the protection of the Hampshire coast against French invasion (p. 506), and included in his register many war-time orders to others as well as himself. A reference in an entry on p. 482 to the bishop's being busy at London ' hearing complaints against the bailiffs and ministers of Eleanor, once queen of England, our consort ', suggests work either in addition to or forming part of his general investigation of ministerial scandals. 1 Personal and diocesan matters of course bulk largely, but often throw light far afield. Such, for example, is the description given (pp. 568- 73) of an inquiry held before the bishop at Rome into the qualifi- cations of one Payn, to whom Pope Boniface VIII wished a benefice in Winchester diocese if possible to be given. The six witnesses called, who all knew Payn personally, could not agree as to the place where his parents- were born, or even as to whether his intimates called him ' the Englishman ' or ' the Saracen ', so the case was sent to England for further inquiry, with orders that if all was well Payn should have his benefice. The procedure suggests a more scrupulous attitude on the part of Boniface in bestowing favours in England than he has sometimes been credited with. As a whole, this valuable section of a valuable register provides at every turn and in every possible connexion new material for pondering upon, though not for solving, the historical problems of the late thirteenth and early four- teenth century. H. J. The sixth volume of the Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1347-56 (London : Stationery Office, 1921), bears the imprint both of medieval and modern warfare, for the latter has sent its price up to 2 11s., while the former is written large on many of its entries. The economic and military historian alike will find much to interest them in its details of grants of wool or of tenths and fifteenths, with the means by which they were levied ; appoint- ments of keepers of castles and prisoners, or of custodians of alien religious houses or their dependencies ; purveyances of victuals for overseas, and orders to surveyors and array ers of men-at-arms. There is an enter- taining list (pp. 437-8) of the miscellaneous cargo, ranging from cinders to silver spoons, found in a Scottish ship captured in the Tyne in 1355. The total value, estimated by the purchase price of each commodity in Flanders, amounted to 112 18s. 2d. ; yet Edward III was apparently 1 See ante, xxxiii. 537.